Jim Abram says the NDP government’s BC Ferries review is “one big stall tactic” because it won’t look at bringing the ferry company back under control of the Ministry of Transportation and treating it like any other highway.
Transportation Minister Claire Trevena announced the long-awaited review Dec. 15, saying at the time that the government was “not looking for an excuse to bring BC Ferries back under government. It is looking at how we can ensure this marine highway works in the best public interest.”
Abram, a director with the Strathcona Regional District on Vancouver Island, said he was “absolutely astounded” that direct ministry control or Crown Corporation status aren’t part of the review terms.
He’s now working to get at least 15,000 signatures on a petition launched just before Christmas that urges the government to change course. As of Jan. 9, more than 12,000 people had signed at www.change.org/p/premier-gov-bc-ca-return-bc-ferries-to-the-ministry-of-transportation.
The petition is nearly identical to one championed by Abram in 2015, which topped out at more than 20,000 signatures.
Abram told Coast Reporter this week that while the previous government more or less ignored the 2015 petition, the NDP should be more responsive – especially given the party’s position on BC Ferries.
“We’ve got to petition this government to do what they intimated they would do throughout the election, right up to election time,” he said.
There hasn’t been a specific statement about returning BC Ferries to direct government control in any NDP election platform since 2005, but Abram maintains it was as good as promised in the last campaign, and he believes that’s what NDP voters expected when they marked their ballots last spring.
“We have a very touchy government right now and they don’t want anybody to suggest they promised this,” said Abram, adding that comments by Premier John Horgan as opposition leader at last year’s Association of Island and Coastal Communities AGM just prior to the election were “about as close to a promise as you can get.”
Horgan also told The Tyee just before the review was announced that “everything’s on the table.”
The Green Party was more explicit during the campaign, and said it was committed to “bring BC Ferries back into government as a Crown Corporation” and Abram said he’s been talking with the Greens about getting them to use their influence with the NDP to advocate for a return to direct government control.
“I am certainly talking to the Green representatives [in the Legislature],” he said. “One of them has made it clear that there has been no change in their position that they feel BC Ferries should be in the Ministry of Transportation – period.”
Abram is also his regional district’s representative on a group of coastal regional district chairs and directors who’ve been lobbying the province on ferry issues for years. He said the majority of that group supports his position.
One point Abram said he wants to drive home is that BC Ferries is vital to the economy of the whole province and government needs to approach it from that perspective.
“The provincial government needs to understand that this is not a coastal issue,” said Abram. “This is a provincial issue, and it’s impacting the entire province. Why isn’t it being treated as a provincial essential service, and a revenue generator?”
The review is supposed to be completed by June 30 and will cost about $250,000.
