Editor:
I read with interest the BC Ferries release announcing the revised schedule to go into effect on Jan. 2, 2018.
It is clear that Mark Collins, BC Ferries president, is polishing his halo in self-congratulation, as he seems to think that we, who choose to live on the Sunshine Coast, should be bowing low in gratitude for the planned changes. However, judging by the letters in the Sept. 29 Coast Reporter, he may wish to reconsider.
A later last sailing and longer in-dock and transit times are simply common sense and any senior management team with half a brain would have put these in place a long time ago. So, no congratulations there – only “what took so long?”
The “new” Jan. 2 schedule proposes the same number of round trips – eight – that we currently “enjoy” in the off-peak season, so there is no improvement there and no congratulations again.
I have to ask why it took a so-called “broad public engagement process” to get so little achieved. From my perspective it seemed that the so-called “engagement process” was a sham of simply going through the motions and why it was considered necessary is a mystery.
Any management team worth its salt would have figured it out on its own, but the lot that run BC Ferries seem not to have the cerebral capacity to do any such thing.
Perhaps we should all wait until Jan. 2 and give them the chance to show if they can pull this off to our satisfaction.
I have my doubts but will give them the benefit of that doubt until then.
Buzz Bennett, Gibsons
