BC Ferries is cutting two Queen of Capilano round-trips, though the runs getting cut aren’t yet clear.
Coun. David Hocking, who sits on Bowen’s Ferry Advisory Committee (FAC), told Bowen Island Municipal council of the plan Monday evening.
The cut sailings will cease as soon as next week said BC Ferries but no other sailings will be affected.
The cuts are apparently part of a loophole in the service agreement with the province –– part of a history that goes back to 2014.
BC Ferries initially intended to cut the Saturday and Sunday 7:30 a.m. sailings from Snug Cove, said Hocking. BC Ferries cut those sailings in 2014 and then after community advocacy reinstated them in 2017 as part of a pilot project. In 2019, under provincial direction, all of the remaining runs cut in 2014 were reinstated but the sailings brought back in 2017 weren’t incorporated into the updated service agreement.
“So when BC Ferries said, right now, we need to cut costs, and fair enough they do, they went ahead and [said] they were going to lop those off,” Hocking told council.
"BC Ferries is making small changes to some of its inter-island sailing schedules as part of our ongoing efforts to ensure the resiliency of our service and better match service levels to current demand," said BC Ferries public affairs manager Darin Guenette in an email. "We are removing sailings that are above our contracted levels of service with the Province, and are taking these steps in order to protect the core of the ferry system and ensure financial sustainability of our services into the future."
In March, the Queen of Capilano passenger numbers were down 35 per cent from the previous year and down 67 per cent in April. BC Ferries said in May that the ferry system was losing $1 million a day due to the effects of COVID-19.
"The total costs savings from these changes will help alleviate the significant financial impact we are forecasting due to COVID-19 effects, and as such, will help us keep the entire ferry network more financially stable," said Guenette. "We will monitor traffic levels and seek to make adjustments over time as demand and traffic projections warrant."
When the FAC received news of the cuts last week, it got to work to propose alternative sailings to eliminate.
BIM had done work on which sailings are most important to essential service workers and found the early morning ferries important for anyone starting at 7 a.m., primarily nurses, firefighters and police. “We felt it really important to keep those early morning sailings,” said FAC chair Melanie Mason.
The FAC then looked at the data it collected in 2016 and went through sailing by sailing and landed on the 7 p.m. from Snug Cove and 7:30 p.m. from Horseshoe Bay on Sundays and Tuesdays (the same run missing from the schedule on Saturdays). The FAC proposed its alternative to BC Ferries Monday.
“It’s an incredibly frustrating situation,” FAC chair Melanie Mason told the Undercurrent. “We were unaware that in 2019, when the all the rest of our routes were returned…that these morning weekend runs had not been included in our core service contract.”
“It just feels like a bit of a [sleight] of hand really. The province gave with one hand and now is kind of taking back with the other,” she said.
“The language that BC Ferries is using is that…it would be a permanent removal from the from the schedule until a point where our passenger numbers would warrant their inclusion,” said Mason. “They have to basically pay for themselves.
“We hope to keep the dialogue going with BC Ferries to get these reinstated when passenger numbers make it possible.”
Hocking said that the FAC would like council to write a letter to the Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure asking to include all 106 sailings to the island’s core service when normal volume resumes, though the matter was left for a future council meeting.
“We’ve been very fortunate with cancellations,” said Mayor Gary Ander at the council meeting, noting how some routes had been cut entirely (though none were lifeline services). “All through the Lower Mainland, the cancellations were outrageous and we came through that relatively unscathed.”
Mason noted to the Undercurrent that Bowen isn't the only route that'll see reduced service––changes are coming to the Sunshine Coast, Gabriola and other Southern Gulf Islands.
Mason said that if islanders have concerns they can email the FAC ([email protected]). “We definitely want to hear back from the community if there's any negative impacts because we do want to be communicating that back to BC Ferries in a timely fashion,” she said.
Other BC Ferries tidbits:
-While BC Ferries said Monday that it would require passengers over the age of two to be in possession of a mask, this only applies to routes longer than 30 minutes (so not the Queen of Capilano).
-As of mid-March the province directed BC Ferries to prioritize access for residents and essential goods and workers but ticket agents have only recently begun asking if travellers are residents (travelling to or from home) as traffic is just starting to rebound.
-As per current Transport Canada regulations, the passenger capacity of the Queen of Capilano is half of what it usually is––only 229 people are allowed on board under current restrictions.
