British Columbia’s coastal communities affected by BC Ferries latest route cuts are rallying to have their plight heard.
The service adjustments will come as early as April of next year.
Gabriola Island resident Jules Molloy says the changes stirred up his community, but it was the way BC Ferries went about them that is causing a lot of frustration to him and other islanders.
Molloy says the company did a series of community engagement meetings after the cuts were announced, but did not consult with the community before making the decision.
“So they were not there to listen to us, they were there to talk to us,” says Molloy.
The cut that is directly affecting Molloy is on the Gabriola Island – Nanaimo Harbour route, which will see a 14.5 per cent reduction in service, saving the company $800,000 by 2016.
Molloy says his young family chose to move to Gabriola Island a few years ago for the support network in the community, but they feel they are now being pressured into moving elsewhere.
“When we settled here we thought, what a safe place to raise our kid,” says Molloy. “It is not fair to say we choose to live here. The fact is everybody chooses their community, and we should not be bullied around and be told where we have to live.”
So he decided to create a video featuring people from his community directly affected by the cuts.
Watch: I Live Here
In the video titled “I Live Here,” more than a dozen residents talk about how their lives will be interrupted by ferry cuts.
“I am three years into my degree to become a police officer, but not if I can’t get to school,” says one woman featured in the video.
Get daily National news
Another woman says, “I have been a nurse for 35 years. I already had to give up full-time work. These cuts mean I may lose my job completely.”
Molloy says they hope the video will empower other coastal communities to follow suit and make their concerns known as well.
“We wanted to send a simple message that focuses on just one aspect, which BC Ferries and BC government seem to have missed – the people. We will try to stir up some support from other coastal communities and say – hey guys, we are actually down here and you did not even ask us.”
He says their other goal is to convince the rest of the province that the ferry system is an essential part of their daily life.
“For a lot of people in the coastal communities, this is the only access they have to their homes,” says Molloy. “We are going to try to prove that this is not just a tiny problem for us. For a lot of people, it is make or break.”
Heron Wier is a tour business operator in Sandspit, Haida Gwaii.
The main cut affecting him is on Skidegate – Alliford Bay route that will see a whopping 34.9 per cent reduction in service, saving BC Ferries $1,200,000.
Another route — Prince Rupert to Skidegate — will see a 27.2 per cent reduction, with an estimated net saving of 1.9 million dollars.
Wier says the region of Haida Gwaii used to be quite resource–based and is now transitioning to tourism.
A lot of tourists come up in their RVs, so fewer ferries, means less access.
Wier says most of the guests stay on Graham Island and take the first ferry in the morning to Moresby.
“We pick them up, take them out on a boat for the day, and get them back on the ferry in the evening. With the proposed changes, we would not be able to do that trip.”
Wier says he expects his tourism business — Moresby Explorers — will lose up to $100,000 in revenues after the cuts are enacted.
“We are not a big business. That’s huge for us.”
He expects freight to become more expensive and medivac response time to be affected.
Wier is also concerned about the only grocery store and school servicing his community of 300 people.
“We hope that Sandspit is a recovering community, but it is on the edge right now of being able to sustain certain essential services to have a community,” says Wier. “A lot of people will have to move away in order to be able to keep their jobs or if they have medical issues that will need to be taken care of. This will lower our population, which will have a big impact on the grocery store and the school’s ability to stay open.”
Wier says BC Ferries has not done an economic or social impact assessment prior to proposing the cuts, and does not seem to be aware of the full impact these cuts would have.
The community engagement process that BC Ferries has conducted after the cuts were announced on November 18 wrapped up last Friday.
In a statement, the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure told Global News that because of factors like rising costs and declining ridership, there is a need to address the significant cost pressures facing the ferry system.
“These are tough decisions to make. We recognize that any reduction in service will result in less choice for travellers, and that there will be some impact,” reads the statement.
The ministry says better alignment of service levels to the level of demand is one of the steps necessary to ensure the long term sustainability of the ferry system.
It says BC Ferries will work with Ferry Advisory Committees to explore refinements to the schedules, within the new service levels, to help mitigate the impacts to the users of the ferry route.
“Public input gathered through our engagement process will be provided to government and BC Ferries in a consultation summary report for consideration in the new year.”
Comments
Want to discuss? Please read our Commenting Policy first.