No thank you cards or flowers for David Hahn this time around.

Riding aboard a B. C. Ferry became a little bit more expensive today, as fuel surcharges once again kicked in to raise the price of transit up 9.6% from the cost of the last sailing. This translates into an increase of 16.20 per passenger fare and 34.10 per vehicle fare on the Rupert to Port Hardy run, the main north south link for the North Coast and the Island.

Needless to say, the latest increase has not gone un-noticed by locals both of the political, business and traveling class. Who have been concerned quite a bit of late over the status of the ferry system and its importance to our part of the province.

Gary Coons, the MLA for the North Coast has once again called for the intervention of the Minister of Transportation, Kevin Falcon to step up and offer some leadership in the ferries issue, especially as it impacts on the economy of the Northwest.

The Daily News had coverage on the hike and the reaction in its Wednesday edition, reprinted below.

OUTRAGE AT FERRY FARE HIKE
By Leanne Ritchie
The Daily News
Wednesday, June 21, 2006.
Page One

A fuel surcharge that has northerners paying more than three times the increase in fares being paid by ferry customers in the Lower Mainland is discrimination and reflects the Liberals’ decision to abandon coastal communities, said North Coast NLA Gary Coons.

Starting tomorrow B. C. Ferries will implement a 3.2 per cent fuel surcharge for major routes between Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland and a9.6 per cent hike everywhere else – including the North.

It’s the third fuel hike in less than a year and – including the annual rate hike – represents a 23 per cent increase for ferry users traveling between Port Hardy, Prince Rupert and the Queen Charlotte Islands.

“For the last 50 years, government has been a huge supporter of ferry-dependent communities,” said Coons. “With this government, it will just hit the pocket books of people on the Central Coast, Haida Gwaii and Prince Rupert.

“A lot of people are calling that discrimination, with the increases more than double on northern routes (compared to the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island.)”

Coons said any increase impacts the cost of goods and services in coastal communities.

In addition, as shown in B. C. Ferries’ research, the surcharge will result in fewer people using ferries at a time when numbers already down because of the disaster of the sinking of the Queen of the North.

“B. C. Ferries in their own elasticity studies show for every 10 per cent fare increase there is a loss of 8.7 per cent traffic on non-major routes,” he said.

He added that the funds the province has committed, some $300,000 to help northern tourism businesses, is not enough to offset the challenges of the season.

“We continue to hear tourism operators are taking a huge hit and the influx of minimal funding from the Minister of Tourism Art and Sport is not going to do it,” said Coons.

He said the province could and should step in and reduce fares.

“We need Kevin Falcon to step in and take leadership in his role as Minister of Transportation,” said Coons, who added that the fuel surcharge was pre-approved by the Ferry Commissioner Martin Crilly last January without any public consultation.

The latest fuel surcharge come despite B. C. Ferries reporting a profit of $50 million last year. The ferry company expects its fuel cost to total about $76 million this fiscal year, compared to about $50 million last year.

In a written ruling, Crilly said the commission does have the authority to deny fuel surcharges to B. C. Ferries and to require the company to absorb all fuel costs.

But such action would “violate important principles and compromise the long-term health of the ferry service.”