More than 20,000 people are urging the provincial government to fold B.C. Ferries back into the Transportation Ministry, as part of a petition to be tabled in the legislature today.
The electronic Change.org petition, with 20,000 signatures, urges the government to reclaim the quasi-private ferry corporation into the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure, to help reduce costs and fares.
“We’ve been asking for three things: reduce the fares, restore the service and put B.C. Ferries back into the ministry,” said Jim Abram, chairman of the Strathcona Regional District, who is helping to bring the petition to Victoria with organizer Laural Eacott.
“[The petition] concentrated on the third [issue], which is the most important, and that is to put B.C. Ferries back into the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure, not realign it as highways or any other wiggle words the NDP is using, but actually reinsert it where it used to be.”
Abram said the move would save B.C. Ferries and the provincial government money by eliminating the “huge multi-armed monster” that has become the B.C. Ferry Corporation, with its staff, administration and downtown offices.
B.C. Ferries is struggling with low ridership, rising costs and a $3-billion, 12-year plan to upgrade terminals and replace aging ships.
The ferry service used to be a ministry function in the early 1970s, then it was a government-run Crown corporation, before the B.C. Liberal government decided in 2002 to spin it off into a private company that received an annual taxpayer subsidy.
Returning it to government control would also mean absorbing billions in ferry debt into the core government budget, which Transportation Minister Todd Stone has warned could imperil the province’s overall credit rating.
Independent Delta South MLA Vicki Huntington will introduce the petition in the legislature today.
Ferry fares are set to rise in April under previously approved hikes.
The public will get a glimpse of the 2016 fare increases in March, when B.C.’s independent ferry commissioner releases interim price caps. The government can then increase its subsidy, cut routes or alter its contract with B.C. Ferries to drive down the commissioner’s price cap by December.
Here's how to sign the petition.
