B.C. Ferries is promising its entire fleet will be operational heading into the August long weekend after several cancellations and delays this summer.
Board chair Joy MacPhail says the publicly owned company is preparing to provide better service with a number of new fixes, including Friday’s return of the Coastal Celebration vessel, which is now ferrying passengers between Tsawwassen and Swartz Bay.
Even with the return of the Coastal Celebration, B.C. Ferries cancelled two other sailings Friday — the 3:15 p.m. leaving Tsawwassen and the 5:45 p.m. sailing leaving Duke Point in Nanaimo — because of a mechanical issue on another vessel, the Coastal Renaissance.
Before addressing mechanical issues with the Coastal Celebration, B.C. Ferries cancelled eight sailings daily between the Lower Mainland and Victoria starting in mid-July.
“There have been many lessons learned this peak season. All vessels are in the water now,” MacPhail said in an email Saturday.
“The corporation is geared up for the long weekend and the executive team is executing on the short, medium and long-term plans necessary to provide customers with better and more reliable service.”
But Victoria’s Pierre Trépanier is doubtful things will be running smoothly after facing consistent ferry cancellations, multi-sailing wait times and IT issues when travelling over the Canada Day long weekend.
“My wife and I made it to the Tsawwassen terminal Tuesday at 10 in the morning but staff told us we could only get on the 7 p.m. ferry to Swartz Bay that night,” the 57-year-old said.
Instead, Trépanier opted to take two B.C. Ferries vessels – one from the Mainland to Salt Spring Island, and another that took the pair from the Gulf Island to the capital city.
“We paid $114 for our return trip — only to find out that night that it was an IT glitch that had B.C. Ferries staff reserving sailings so late.”
At one time, the company’s website indicated a nine-sailing wait for people to get on board, but later admitted the notice was a mistake, which added to the frustration of passengers.
“It’s insane. If we had just waited at the terminal, we would have likely gotten on much sooner,” Trépanier said.
Ppeaking to news media Friday, Premier David Eby attributed B.C. Ferries’ woes to a shortage of skilled employees and slow securement of replacement parts that are necessary for its aging fleet.
“Even with those challenges that they face, what we’re seeing currently is not acceptable,” he said.
B.C. Ferries says it is working to address service delays, which have become more frequent during increased summer travel.
“B.C. Ferries is seeing some of the highest vehicle and passenger counts in the company’s history and we have a $5.2 billion capital plan to help address that,” said MacPhail, a former NDP cabinet minister who was appointed chair of B.C. Ferries’ board in June 2022.
“There is a global shortage of mariners that we’re addressing by hiring trained personnel from outside of Canada as well as working with our marine colleges to train up the next generation of seafarers,” she said.
“Given the fact that it takes several years to build a ship and shipyards across the globe are busy, the results of these investments will be phased in over the next decade.”
Meantime, Trépanier says he’s dreading his next trip to the mainland.
“It’s gotten to the point where we’re leaving home a day in advance just to be sure that we’ll make our plans.”
