An increased ferry marshal presence is expected in Snug Cove this summer under a new pilot program.
Bylaw services supervisor Doug Woods says he is looking to hire a pair of ferry marshals for the upcoming tourist season with a $46,000 Small Community Grant Fund the municipality received from the province at the end of last year. The marshals would work around seven hours total on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and holidays beginning with the May long weekend and running through Thanksgiving. The project would be assessed at the end of the year to determine if it should be brought back in the future.
Duties for the marshals would include speaking to people parked in the cross-hatch sections of the lineup, making sure traffic lanes stay clear, and keeping an eye out for people trying to jump into the lineup while the ferry is loading. While the marshals won’t have the power to issue tickets for any infractions, they can either alert bylaw officers to attend the scene or document illegal activity so a ticket can be issued retroactively.
Previous ferry marshal work during the summer has been conducted by a Bowen contractor for several years, along with various flaggers. However last year the contractor said they wouldn’t be continuing in the role going forward, leaving the island without any marshal service. In explaining his case to fund the positions Woods explained ferry marshals are an essential service to the island, and that contracting out these roles to private companies returned much more expensive estimates between $82,000 and $131,000 (albeit with more coverage, about 12 hours per day).
Woods added that while the municipality (BIM) can fund the program, he hopes BC Ferries ends up covering at least half of the costs. Funding for past marshal and flagging service was split evenly between BIM and BC Ferries, and last year totalled around $9,000.
Mayor Andrew Leonard expressed his support for the program but stressed that BC Ferries should be picking up the full tab. “I continue to be incredibly disappointed that BC Ferries has not come to the table to fund this at all,” he said following Woods’ presentation to council.
“As it stands I think this is still a stop-gap measure. Seven hours a day on weekends, I anticipate, is not going to be enough. It does seem like the ferry corporation is starting to get the message they need to make changes… but this is part of their operational domain.”
Council unanimously approved the inclusion of $46,000 in this year’s budget to hire the two marshals, and approved a letter to BC Ferries expressing their desire for financial assistance. If BC Ferries does return with an offer to fund some or all of the project, it’s yet to be determined whether that would free up the provincial grant money to be used elsewhere, or if the amount of service provided by the marshals (ie. hours or days covered) would be expanded.
Leonard added that BIM is already using other municipal funds for ferry related costs, including Major Road Network funding from TransLink going toward repainting markings in the ferry lineup. “We’re doing BC Ferries’ jobs for them in terms of everything from wayfinding to signage to lane markings and now ferry marshaling, which does not happen in any other community in the province. Which is absolutely ridiculous.”
“For a community with a tax base of 4,200 people that has to do its own ferry marshaling… it’s a jurisdictional issue that does not seem to be sinking in,” said the mayor.
