There were more protestors than guests at the Sechelt and District Chamber of Commerce event on Sept. 30 where business people gathered to hear what Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure Todd Stone had to say about ferries and transportation in general on the Coast.
Well over 60 protestors lined the street outside the Driftwood Inn where Stone was to meet with members of the Chamber on Tuesday, holding signs with slogans such as “reduce fares, increase sailings” and “listen to the people.”
Stone seemed unsurprised by the gathering and stopped to talk with protestors on his way in to the event.
“Families are suffering. We need to reduce fares,” one woman said. “The Ministry of Trans-portation should take over BC Ferries,” another man shouted.
Stone said in response that his government was “working on a number of fronts” to reduce fares and that it wasn’t feasible for government to take over ferries because of the debt the corporation carries at the moment.
He spent about 10 minutes with the group of protestors before heading into the Chamber event and addressing some of the same issues inside.
“The reason I came is kind of twofold,” Stone told the crowd of about 40 Chamber members gathered.
“First off I want to talk about our 10-year transportation plan … and secondly, I wanted to touch on ferries, obviously.”
He said the provincial government will soon seek input on a new 10-year transportation plan and that the public should expect to hear more in the coming weeks when they’ll be “invited to have some engagement on this.”
The last transportation plan took the province from 2003 to 2013 and saw about $17 billion in investment in transportation areas such as ferries, roads, ports and airports.
Stone said he spent some time with local politicians earlier in the day hearing about their transportation priorities and he highlighted Sechelt’s plans for airport expansion as something “with tremendous potential.”
“I want you to know that I consider myself to be a champion of the Sunshine Coast Regional Airport,” Stone said. “We’re going to make darn sure that we’re at the table along with our federal partners and obviously the local communities here to help you take your airport to the next level.”
On the topic of ferries, Stone said he realized that escalating fares have seriously impacted ridership over the years.
“I think the most important thing that I want to say about ferries, and I want everyone to hear this, I’m probably the first ferries minister who’s publicly acknowledged, and I have quite a number of times in the last 15 months, have acknowledged the fact that there’s no question that as fares have increased passenger volumes have decreased. There is very clearly a direct correlation between the two,” Stone said, noting in the future he and Premier Christy Clark want to see fares “start to come down on an annual basis because we understand that correlation.”
While Stone said he wants to do something to lower fares he added that currently there are “limitations” to what government can do.
“We can’t bring ferries back into government today. Perhaps we will get there. We can’t do it today and we can’t do it for this simple reason: ferries has a debt of $1.25 billion,” Stone said.
“As interesting as the structure [of BC Ferries] is, one of the key benefits of the current structure is that debt is not rolled up on the province’s balance sheet.”
He said that having the province take on a debt of that magnitude would downgrade B.C.’s credit rating and ultimately cost the province “hundreds of millions of dollars.”
“We’re not prepared to do that. This is why the premier made the commitment that we will create a prosperity fund that will be funded with proceeds from the LNG industry,” Stone said, noting one of every three dollars in the fund would go to lowering the BC Ferries debt.
He pointed to converting some ferries to run on LNG and using fewer crew members to staff BC Ferries as a way to possibly save money in the future, adding he also wanted to see more investment from the federal government.
Acknowledging that schedule cuts have negatively effected Coasters, Stone said “there are not going to be any further service reductions to any of the ferries that you depend on in your backyard here.”
He also welcomed suggestions on ferry schedule refinements from local community leaders.
“I hear a lot about the Sunday ferry at Langdale; let’s take a look at that,” he said.
When asked why the province isn’t looking at the cost of a road to the mainland as an alternative to ferry travel for the Coast, he said no one had suggested it to him before.
“If I get the signal from the community here that this is something that you really feel would make a difference and it’s something that we should take a look at from a feasibility perspective, then I will be all over it,” Stone said.
“I put the challenge back to the community to stand up and say that’s what you think should be a priority, and we’ll take a look at it.
