The following letter was sent to Transportation Minister Blair Lekstrom and copied to Coast Reporter.
Dear Mr. Lekstrom:
You strike me as being a reasonable and fair individual - one who will take a stand for your constituents and the people you represent. Thus I hope you will take my comments re B.C. Ferries under consideration.
I'm dealing specifically with the recommendation that the reservation system could be reversed and the implications on how that decision could impact those who reside on the Sunshine Coast.
The pros could only benefit the considerable number of families who have homes here, but only come on weekends and holidays, and would take up space on the ferry through the free reservation system and leave us residents who couldn't plan ahead sitting on the dock.
The cons are that those of us who live on this peninsula full time and who travel to the city for various reasons sometimes have no way to control what time we're able to leave in order to be on time for the ferry to return home. Our penalty is already a one or two ferry wait and should not be financial. Our only choice would be to reserve every sailing, if possible.
At times, I have a family travelling with small children from the Okanagan. Try as they might, they have no control over what time they're going to arrive in time to meet the reservation requirements. They're already going to pay almost $100, under normal circumstances, and if they had to pay a penalty for not having a reservation for "not planning ahead" they just will not come.
Sally Wilson
Sechelt
