Editor:
I received an emailed service notice at the onset of the recent B.C. Ferries fiasco shortly after noon on Friday, June 4. It stated: 11:45 a.m., please be advised the Queen of Coquitlam is holding in dock at Horseshoe Bay until further notice. All sailings between Horseshoe Bay and Langdale are suspended."
Alarmed, I called the Victoria operations office. They were unaware the ferry was down. When I asked to speak to Deborah Marshall, B.C. Ferries media rep and spokesperson, I was told she was out to lunch.
A subsequent service notice was issued at 12:45 p.m. stating the next sailing was "approximately 2:10" - the route then behind multiple sailings. Hundreds of people were affected, their schedules upended. Seems no one could get a straight answer from ferry employees as to the nature or extent of this latest problem. The website was mute, phone contacts confused and terminal employees' comments ambiguous.
While our residents may have become resigned to the incessant delays this route experiences, and while we can all understand that the aged vessels assigned to Route 3 do tend to break down, the apparent habitual inability of the Ferry Corporation to provide courteous, clear and complete information for businesses, visitors, commuters and their families when these unrelenting events occur, should concern us all.
If the Ferry Corporation cannot provide our route dependable service, reasonable fares and an amenable schedule, perhaps it could, at least, try to politely advise the public when it cannot fulfil its function. What I am requesting is nothing more than that which is provided to the major ferry routes.
Please Mr. Hahn, is that too much to grant our beleaguered community?
Barry J. Janyk
Mayor, Gibsons
