Is the Alaska ferry set to sail back home for good?

The Northern View on Wednesday featured the potentially damaging blow to Prince Rupert, of having the Alaska Marine Highway System pull out of the city. On the front page the weekly and its website today, is the story of the pressure from within the state of Alaska, which could see the southern terminus of the service move to Hyder, Alaska.

While it may be more of a case of some hard bargaining to come for the City of Prince Rupert and the terms for the Terminal based here, there has always been a certain segment of Alaskan society that has wanted the ferry to stop in American waters, with Ketchikan the usual suspect, complete with a road punched through the panhandle and into BC to form a link with Highway 16.

The Hyder proposal hasn't been mentioned much before, due mainly to the lack of infrastructure in place there. There are few hotels, motels and such to serve a huge influx of travellers waiting for a sailing, though we suspect that it wouldn't take long for Alaska's entrepreneurs to launch a building boom.

The last time that the ferry service was in danger of potentially being lost, probably dates back to the great Malaspina blockade of the 1997. When local fishing boats formed a blockade to hold the ferry into harbour over the state of the fishery of the day.

While no similar incident has happened since, that episode still seems to resonate with the folks in Juneau, and in the rumblings of the post 9-11 world security seems to be one of the talking points they are using this time around.

The situation has attracted the attention of Prince Rupert Mayor Herb Pond, who used his free reign in the pages of the Northern View to examine the issue from his point of view.

Both the story on the latest rumblings over the ferry and the Mayor's column on it can be found below.

Pressure to pull ferries is increasing
By Shaun Thomas

The Northern View
Jul 18 2007

The push for Alaska Ferries to pull its service from Prince Rupert is on the rise within the state, according to Prince Rupert Mayor Herb Pond.

“As long as I have been in government, that has been an issue. Hyder has been lobbying and it has always been in the background,” he said.

“It is coming to life again a little more because there are new people running the Alaska ferry system, there is a new commissioner of transportation under the elected governor, there is a new Marine Transportation Advisory Board and I think that lobby has come back to life in a stronger than usual way. There are some significant operational issues for the Alaska Marine Highway System as they operate in and out of Canada now that simply didn’t exist 10 years ago.”

Among the new operational concerns are increased security measures put into place for travel between the U.S. and Canada following the attacks of September 11, some of which require U.S. Customs agents to travel on board the ferry between Alaska and Prince Rupert, explained Pond.
Currently the city owns the terminal building and has a lease with both the Prince Rupert Port Authority and the Alaska Marine Highway System, a lease that was given a short-term renewal recently and that the city says could be on a month-to-month basis. Should Alaska Ferries choose to withdraw its service, Pond said the impact to Prince Rupert could be huge.

“This is a transportation link that means a lot to Prince Rupert and has the potential to be really substantial to Prince Rupert as we move forward with expanded retail shopping and the gaming centre opening up. I think people would be surprised to know how many Alaskans come down here every year,” he said.

“We have done a lot of work building relationships to keep people informed about what is developing here in Prince Rupert and we have some strong allies that see the tremendous advantage of coming here, but we have to do a lot of work and form a lot of alliances to make sure that nobody takes that for granted.”

A spokesperson for the Alaska Marine Highway System confirmed that Hyder is pushing for the ferry to come there and listed issues with Prince Rupert such as the poor maintenance of the dock and cross-border operational concerns. However, he noted that Hyder is more costly to go to, has no dock infrastructure and lacks supports like hotels and motels.

The importance of building and keeping strong regional ties
By Prince Rupert Mayor Herb Pond

The Northern View
Jul 18 2007

As we live our busy lives, few of us think much about Alaska and the impact it has on our economy. We shouldn’t take it for granted.

A significant percentage of our seafood processing jobs depend on Alaskan caught fish. Our stores, restaurants and hotels all benefit from traffic destined for Alaska. We are home port to the Aquatrain which travels between here and Whittier. And as shipping lines examine the opportunities at the container port, our proximity to the Alaskan market is very strong advantage. Without doubt, there is considerable potential for increased commerce north-south.

It’s noteworthy that during the recent flooding closures, our neighbours in our sister city of Ketchikan were amongst the very first to offer help.

In part, that’s why Prince Rupert Council places such a high importance on building relationships in Ketchikan and throughout southeast Alaska. And in part, that’s why we participated again this year in their July 4th parade, bringing along the ever-popular Mounties in red serge. And, once again we were warmly welcomed – in fact it’s always a little overwhelming.

Like our own Seafest Parade, people line the streets of Ketchikan for blocks. In all, the route takes about an hour to travel. The shouts from the crowd are incredible. “Welcome to Ketchikan!” “Thanks for coming!” “Happy (belated) Birthday Canada!”

People want Canada flags and pins. They want pictures with the Mounties. They tell of their last trip through Rupert – often to ski, golf or play basketball somewhere in the Northwest.

We meet with business and political leaders and together commit to strengthen our bonds, which is becoming increasingly important. The Alaska Marine Highway (ferry) System, our strongest link with Alaska, is always under close scrutiny and in this post 9/11 world there are growing challenges to operating a transborder ferry system.

Like our own ferry system, AMHS relies heavily on taxpayer funding to cover the shortfalls and lawmakers are increasingly looking for ways to save money. We’ve got our work cut out for us to maintain and grow this critical link.

That’s why in addition to building strong ties within the Northwest, and along Highway 16, we are also looking north. Prince Rupert has long played a significant role in connecting the communities of this North Coast, and indeed in connecting Alaska to B.C. In many ways it is our destiny.

Now, more than ever it is also our opportunity and responsibility.

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Picture above from the pbs.org newshour archive site.