Editor:
It seems that there are three issues that bother Coast residents the most: water storage, ferry service and Highway 101.
I think it is generally held that the highway is now inadequate and unsafe for the volume of traffic it now has to carry, but so far as I know, there are no plans to do anything about this unsatisfactory state of affairs.
I regularly receive emails from BC Ferries telling me that the Langdale long-term parking lot is full and that the ferry is running behind schedule.
The most cited reason for the latter is “heavy traffic volume,” which seems to be a euphemism for incompetence. Surely the scheduled turnaround time should be set so it is possible to disembark and embark a full load of cars and trucks within the time allotted. Several times last week I noted that the actual turnaround time was 40 minutes, so why create unrealistic expectations with a posted schedule of 20 or 25 minutes, when it is impossible to achieve unless the ferry is only half full?
The “new and improved” schedule to be introduced on Jan. 2 seems to have 25 and 30 minutes as the turnaround times, which does nothing to address or acknowledge the central problem.
We are told that money is to be spent on the terminal building, which isn’t broken, and nothing will be spent on the passenger long-term parking lot, which is. Once again BC Ferries management displays its supreme indifference to its customers, who live on the Coast.
Where is Nicholas Simons in all of this? I can understand his lack of influence during the time of the Liberal government, but now that we have the NDP in power in Victoria, surely he could and should focus his attention on the highway and the ferry service, both of which are in need of radical improvement.
I don’t think he can do anything about the abysmal state of affairs with respect to our water supply, about which much has been written. There is not much I can add except to say that our local elected representatives rival BC Ferries management in turning a blind eye and a deaf ear to what their constituents have written and said.
I don’t hold out much hope that anything will change in the near term.
Buzz Bennett, Gibsons
