Vehicle accident led to BC Ferries crew shortage that chopped Sunshine Coast sailings

BC Ferries has confirmed that a motor vehicle accident is behind the crew shortage that led to several cancelled sailings between Earls Cove and Saltery Bay over Labour Day weekend.

An employee was in the accident on the way to work, resulting in around eight cancelled sailings between the two Sunshine Coast destinations from Saturday to Monday.

“We certainly hope our employee is doing fine,” BC Ferries’ Deborah Marshall said in a Sunday interview. “We apologize to our customers for any inconvenience that may have caused.”

As of Monday morning, the Labour Day weekend had otherwise passed with little issue, Marshall said.

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A sailing between Bella Coola and Bella Bella was delayed on Sunday, but the company was able to resolve the mechanical issue on the Northern Sea Wolf that caused it.

It was also able to secure additional crew members for two Saturday sailings between Tsawwassen in Delta and Swartz Bay in Victoria that it had initially cancelled due to staffing shortages.

Marshall said it’s not always easy to replace a crew member at the last minute.

“We certainly try to have some resiliency in our system, but there are some key positions in the deck and engineering department for example, where we do need to make sure we have those qualified people operating our vessels,” she explained.

“Unfortunately, we weren’t able to backfill on the Earls Cove, Saltry Bay runs, so unfortunately, we had to cancel some sailings this weekend.”

2:12 Staffing shortages playing major role in BC Ferries cancellations

More than 51,000 long weekend passengers had travelled on BC Ferries vessels as of Sunday.

The company has been squeezed in recent weeks with a major vessel, the Coastal Renaissance, out of the water for repairs until at least mid-October.

A company report also recently revealed that staffing shortages were responsible for four in 10 cancelled sailings in the previous fiscal year — about 1,100 of over 2,800 cancellations between April 2022 and March 2023.

The figure was more than double the 522 crew-related cancellations in the previous fiscal year, and just 25 crew-related cancellations in the 2020 fiscal year.