A month of face-to-face consultations with Island stakeholders appears to have driven home what southern Vancouver Island wants from the government’s 10-year transportation plan — a revamped Belleville Street terminal.
However, whether it happens in short order remains to be seen.
Parliamentary secretary Jordan Sturdy, who has been consulting with stakeholders on behalf of the provincial Transportation Ministry over the last month to determine Island priorities, believes he’s got the message.
“We listened to their concerns. There wasn’t much response [from us] as we were really just collecting information,” he said, noting the top priorities seem to be the terminal and the McKenzie Avenue and Trans-Canada Highway intersection.
Sturdy said those two items will be part of the 10-year transportation plan the province intends to release next year, but he couldn’t say where they will fit in when all provincial priorities are taken into account.
“We also have to put numbers to some of this stuff,” he said. “What we’ve done is identified the what, not so much the how.”
This week, Sturdy wrapped a month of consultations with stakeholders of all stripes on the Island at a meeting with Tourism Victoria’s transportation committee.
“I think that meeting reinforced for us some of the messages received from the Capital Regional District elected officials we met with. For them, Belleville is a critical gateway piece for Vancouver Island and B.C. as well,” he said.
Tourism Victoria has long held that the redevelopment of the terminal — consolidation of the Victoria Clipper and Blackball Transport terminals in a welcoming and effective gateway — is its top priority and needs to be undertaken soon.
“[The province] was playing its cards very close to its chest, but we’re very pleased they came and listened,” said Tourism Victoria chief executive Paul Nursey after the meeting.
“We made it clear Belleville is our No. 1 priority.”
Nursey said the city, industry and business are aligned behind the project, which would revitalize a tired gateway that welcomes more than 800,000 people a year and between the Clipper and Coho has a combined economic impact of more than $180 million annually on the Island economy.
Ryan Burles, chief executive of Black Ball Ferry Line, which operates the Coho between Victoria and Port Angeles, Washington, said he thinks the Transportation Ministry understands the importance of the terminal and is motivated to act.
“They understand our dock is on its last legs and they understand the economic equation and our business model,” he said. “We want to improve the experience for passengers.”
Belleville improvements would be undertaken in stages — replacing the Coho’s docks and repairing the Clipper’s docks first, then city improvements to the space to the south of the terminal and finally removal of the modular buildings and construction of a new common-use terminal.
The month-long consultation also reinforced that the McKenzie Avenue and Trans-Canada Highway intersection remains a serious concern because of the bottleneck it creates.
“We were pitched on the Admirals-McKenzie interchange right up to Port McNeill,” Sturdy said.
The province has already noted the $80-million-to-$100-million pricetag for an overpass at the intersection would require federal funding to become a reality.
Bruce Carter, chief executive of the Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce, said those two projects and designated bus lanes to the Western Communities must be part of the 10-year plan. However, Carter said if he had to choose just one thing to be included, he would opt to ensure ferry fares are not increased.
Carter said the consultation has been useful and likely offered the government, which doesn’t have an MLA from the southern Island in its midst, a better understanding of the area.
Sturdy said the public can still have its say on transportation priorities until Dec. 12 via an online survey at engage.gov.bc.ca/transportationplan.
