Editor:
Sent to Premier John Horgan and Transportation Minister Clare Trevena.
Last Thursday we learned that the ferry service has again broken down for the long weekend of July 1, cancelling at least three morning ferry crossings from Horseshoe Bay to Langdale on Saturday, June 29. It was also out of action for almost a day during this same week. The ferry service is the only road system we have to get to medical specialist offices, to exit the Sunshine Coast in cases of evacuation due to forest fires or earthquakes, to see and visit our families, to get to the airport, and the list goes on and on. You will say we chose to live here and that is true, but when we moved here 17 years ago, the ferry system serviced the citizenship adequately. We have been told we will have one new ferry, five years from now. The ferry service as it exists today is grossly inadequate, especially during the summer months, so five years is not acceptable.
A major problem is the reservation system that the ferry uses. The summer population books all the weekends and the statutory holidays at the beginning of the year when it only costs $10 each way so that they only lose $20 if they decide not to come one time. The Washington ferry system is much better. To book the ferry you pay a substantial percentage of the cost in advance so that if you do not show up you are out a lot of money. Also people do not have to sit for many hours in the ferry lineups with their engines going for the air-conditioning they need.
The large trucks that service our coasts with food and other supplies also need to make reservations because the ferries are full most days and this is noticeable in the increasing costs of our food, gas, etc.
Since in office, the NDP has done nothing for the citizens of the Sunshine Coast, even though the NDP has been voted in by these same citizens every provincial election since we moved here. It is time for you, our government, to step up to the plate especially as an election is close. We need a new highway system such as Glen Clark did for Vancouver Island and more new ferries or a bridge to the mainland. Action is needed now, not consultations.
Elaine Clayden, Sechelt
