Despite continued outrage from Sunshine Coast residents, B.C. Ferries is going ahead with its planned sailing reductions this weekend.
The Saturday 6:30 p.m. sailing from Langdale and 7:25 p.m. sailing from Horseshoe Bay and the Sunday 6:20 a.m. sailing from Langdale and 7:20 a.m. sailing from Horseshoe Bay have been eliminated by B.C. Ferries. The new schedule will be in effect until at least March.
With a vehicle utilization of 15 per cent and passenger utilization of just five per cent, the 6:20 a.m. Sunday sailing from Langdale is the day's least-required sailing, said ferries spokesperson Deborah Marshall.
"We regret that we had to make this decision," said Marshall. "You will affect someone any time you are forced to cut sailings, but we did look at the low utilization rate on the Sunday sailing and felt we could impact the fewest people by cutting that sailing."
When asked whether B.C. Ferries considered consulting with local residents before making their decision, Marshall said there were no plans to do so.
"This was purely a business decision and there was no thought to have a meeting," she said. "We consult on a lot of things with the local FACs [ferry advisory committees], but as I said before, this was a business decision and our plan will go ahead this weekend."
The lack of consultation is what is most troubling to sports groups and local politicians who are shocked that the 6:20 a.m. Sunday sailing is now sunk.
Last Saturday, Teresa Nightingale with the Sun-shine Coast Athletics running group was interviewed by local media and Global TV in Sechelt about the impact cancelling the first morning sailing will have on the running community.
"We're all just shocked that B.C. Ferries would do this without any consultation. It's really going to affect all the competitive runners and soccer, hockey, the mountain bikers, skiers - anyone who needs to take the ferry into Vancouver for athletic competitions on weekends," said Nightingale.
Nightingale and a small group of residents tried to organize a camp-out at the Horseshoe Bay terminal on Saturday night, but as it was Thanksgiving weekend, many who wanted to participate were unable to.
"With just four of us we were easily kicked out of the waiting room after approximately one hour and 15 minutes," she said. "The cleaning staff called in a very rude security person who threatened to call the police if we didn't leave. We went to the motel and spent $111 on a room. I think it would take at least 25 people to make it work, preferably more like 50.
"We brought some signs with messages and displayed them on the return sailing Sunday morning," she added. "It was interesting that the B.C. Ferries staff on-board were generally supportive of our message - in some cases very enthusiastically supportive - with a big thumbs-up and 'good for you.'"
Powell River-Sunshine Coast MLA Nicholas Simons has organized a town hall meeting for Monday, Oct. 20 at 7:30 p.m. at the Gibsons and area Community Centre to discuss the issue.
