At the request of board chair Garry Nohr, the Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) will wait until after a Nov. 22 meeting with the province before agreeing to undertake a needs assessment to ward off possible service cuts by BC Ferries.
The meeting in Vancouver will bring together 13 regional district chairs from ferry-dependent communities for a "summation" with MLA Jordan Sturdy, who has been meeting individually with the chairs and their respective CAOs since September.
"I would wait until the 22nd because I've actually seen movement in the last six, seven months," Nohr told the SCRD's infrastructure services committee on Nov. 7. "I'm hoping something positive comes out of the 22nd."
During the Union of B.C. Municipalities convention in September, Premier Christy Clark announced that Sturdy, the parliamentary secretary to Transportation Minister Todd Stone, would be working with the chairs to find solutions prior to the coming round of consultations on possible cuts to the coastal ferry service.
The public consultation for the Sunshine Coast is scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 30, at the Cedars Inn in Gibsons, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. The date is subject to change, with updates to be posted by Nov. 18 at www.coastalferriesengagement.ca.
Nohr said the province asked the regional chairs to come up with suggestions for reducing ferry costs, and "our first reaction was no taxes from local government."
For the Nov. 22 meeting, Nohr predicted the regional chairs would make "solid presentations" on behalf of their ferry-dependent communities.
"Basically the small areas have all the same concerns. It's almost universal," he said. "It's the small groups that are suffering the most. Sunshine Coast is not the worst off. Some are worried about losing their whole community."
At UBCM, Clark "clearly said something has to be done," he added.
"I do believe the premier now is moving towards getting something done positively for the people on Vancouver Island and along the coast."
If positive action does not occur, Nohr said he wouldn't rule out doing "something desperate," such as a "march on Victoria."
Barry Cavens, chair of the southern Sunshine Coast ferry advisory committee, appeared before SCRD directors asking them to take the lead in developing a comprehensive needs assessment for the Coast, incorporating past studies and seeking input from key sectors.
"There's a lot of issues on the Sunshine Coast that I think we need to put in one document," Cavens said, adding that if the province "hears the message that we are starting to do our own planning," it might be more reluctant to cut services.
Directors agreed to Nohr's suggestion that they wait until next month, after he reports back on the meeting with Sturdy, before considering the request.
During last year's consultations, elected officials and members of the public urged the province to fund coastal ferries as part of the province's transportation system, and the regional chairs have continued to hammer that message home, Nohr said.
CAO John France said the message appears to be getting through.
"I think the success of this is dependent on changing the financial perspective of the province, and I see some movement there, too," France said at the meeting.
