A cut to the Senior's discount, a gaming pilot project, a 35 percent cut to minor coastal sailings and cuts to weekend sailings to and from Bowen Island are all part of BC Ferries new strategy to finding $54 million in "efficiency improvements" by 2016. Provincial Transportation Minister Todd Stone announced their new strategy on Monday. On Tuesday Municipal Councillor Alison Morse and representatives from 11 other Ferry Advisory Committees met with officials from both Transport Canada and BC Ferries.
Morse says their conversation did not get to the specific changes made to various routes. Officials representing BC Ferries did say that while they are open to alternative ideas, they are committed the their savings goals on each route. For Bowen, this means a savings of $270 thousand dollars between April 2014 to March 2016. This number includes the revenues lost by ticket sales on cancelled sailings.
"We know that they haven't done any social-economic impact analysis when they decided what routes to cut and when," says Morse. "And they didn't take into account the number of foot passengers on the cut sailings, only the number of vehicles."
Cuts the early morning sailings to and from Bowen on both Saturday and Sunday could mean that people who work weekends and shifts won't be able to get to their jobs. Cuts to the last ferry from Bowen on Saturday evening could impact restaurants that host visitors who come here for dinner.
The second round of public consultation on this strategies started this week, with representatives from BC Ferries visiting Bowen on November 21st.
"They want feedback on things like plans to introduce gaming onto the ferries," says Morse, "But I told them that in the public consultations, people are going to want to know the rationale behind their cuts. During the question and answer period, we get to direct the questions."
Members of the public unable to attend the consultation can comment on the BC Ferries strategy by filling out the feedback forms at the back of the Coastal Ferries Engagement Discussion Guide.
Councillor Morse says that in her meetings this week, BC Ferries representatives walked members of the Advisory Committees through the Guide.
"The relevant information is most clearly laid out in the feedback forms," says Morse.
Cuts to Route 8, between Horseshoe Bay and Bowen Island are explained on page 16 of the Discussion Guide and then again in the feedback forms on page 39.
The public can offer their feedback in this way until December 20th.
The Bowen Island Municipality Transportation Advisory Committee (BIMTAC) also wants to know the concerns of Bowen residents with respect to the proposals and suggested service reductions outlined in theBC Coastal Ferries Community Engagement Fall 2013 Discussion Guide and Feedback Form.
Please contact a member ofBIMTAC or email your comments to [email protected] put "attention BIMTAC" in the subject line.
