Ferries debate heats up

The increasingly acrimonious situation at B C Ferries was the subject of a one hour segment on the Bill Good Show today on CKNW. Bill Good had North Coast MLA Gary Coons and Mayor Herb Pond on his show for the first half hour as they discussed safety and operational plans for the Northern routes.

The Mayor was pretty well shut out from the conversation for the most part though, limited to a brief blurb on the need to replace the Queen of the North as soon as possible. The real discussion came as Good questioned Coons over the need for a full inquiry into the safety issues that have cropped up in the last few days over the entire Ferry fleet.

The discussion seemed to dwell on the change of direction of the Ferry Corp since David Hahn took over the quasi privatized fleet of ships. Coons seemed to suggest that things were better prior to the change of corporate direction, Good countered that Coons and the NDP seemed to have selective memories and seem to forget that even during the NDP years, the Ferry Corporation has always been a lightning rod for British Columbians.

The second half of the hour featured BC Ferries CEO and President David Hahn; the Ferries boss is a frequent guest on the program, but seems to prefer to only appear with Good one on one, perhaps afraid of being sandbagged by politicians such as Coons, or by union reps such as Jackie Miller. Judging by the tone of debate of late he probably has good reason to think that way.

During his thirty minute appearance, Hahn discussed the swirling concerns over the safety of the fleet, the plans of acquisition for a replacement ferry for the Queen of the North.

While the BC Ferry President didn’t want to discuss the pending legal action from its former safety director, Hahn, did say that the Ferry Corporation rejects the accusations of Darin Bowland.

Pointing out that the former safety director was only employed for eight weeks by the corporation, Hahn said that Boland had never set foot on the Queen of the North or the Queen of Prince Rupert, which may counter balance some of the charges by Bwoland offered up in his legal writ issued yesterday.

Hahn returned to his theme of late of finding out that missing fourteen minutes on the bridge of the Queen of the North on that fateful night of the ferry’s sinking. A situation that has been hampered at the Ferry Corporation by the refusual of two employees in question to take part in the Corporations invesgitation.

He also let slip that the ship to replace the Queen of the North is a Spanish built vessel and didn’t see the challenges of a different loading system as an impediment to having a ship on line for the North Coast by next year.

Good opened up the phone lines at 9:45 and let the audience have at the embattled Ferries boss, who certainly is facing his most trying times since taking the helm of the Corporation.

The fifteen minutes offered up some interesting points to ponder over the storm over the Ferry Corporation.

Phone call contributions were mixed during the fifteen minutes, some callers praised his handling of the situation, and others expressed concerns over the state of relations at the company of late.

Hahn reaffirmed his plans to have a safety audit for the fleet, stating that he had made those plans public many times before but they seem to get conveniently overlooked by those speaking out against his leadership.

Perhaps it was a reference to Gary Coons, as Hahn took advantage of his platform to suggest that many of the attacks by the MLA and others might be more politically motivated than anything else. It may be worth pondering a bit as the rhetoric over the Ferry Corporation seems to be clouding the issue of finding out what happened on the Queen of the North and where the future of the fleet may be.

An interesting revelation came to light during the phone in segment, a BC Ferries employee phoned in and explained how he received performance bonuses at the end of the year if he met certain targets, and he asked if Hahn had the same kind of arrangement.

Hahn revealed that he has a salary + bonus target provision in his contract. His bonus would be 50% of his salary should he meet the conditions of some thirteen different criteria, such as safety, fuel savings, capital cost reductions and others. He also suggested that his bonus potential would probably be impacted by the Queen of the North disaster.

It was a fairly interesting hour of debate about a service that touches the lives of many British Columbians, its well worth listening in to learn more about how things have gotten to where they are at B C Ferries these days.

You can listen in to the full hour of debate by going to the CKNW Audio Vault and clicking on the 9 to 10 am hour.