Union seeks government review of ferry privatization

With a new website saveourferries.com launched and the rank and file firmly behind them, the B. C. Ferry and Marine Workers’ Union is putting some heat on the provincial government over its privatization program.

They suggest that the “push for profit” that the Ferry Service is currently operating under is not in the best interests of the ferry users, many of whom live in small isolated towns up and down the coast.

From increasing ferry rates to fears of contracting out of services, the Ferry workers are seeking for a public review of the Coastal Ferry Act, making it more beneficial to the public than the corporation.

Of course, the Ferry workers have their own agenda as well, preferring to keep as many jobs as possible for their membership and to enhance their input into the state of the ferry corporation.

But some of their message will resonate with the traveling public who have come to rely on BC Ferries to provide reasonably priced and reliable transportation on our coast.

With an election on the horizon in British Columbia for May 12 of 2009, it would seem that the state of our Ferries is going to become one of the key issues leading up to that election campaign.

The Daily News had details of the Ferry workers’ plans in Tuesday’s paper.

'Scrap ferry changes' says union
The Daily News
Tuesday, February 05, 2008

Pages 1 and three

With a provincial election in the coming year, the B.C. Ferry and Marine Workers' Union is hoping to push the provincial Liberals into reviewing the privatization of B.C. Ferries.

The union, which represents the majority of ferry workers, has launched a new website saveourferries.com to encourage the public to push for a review of the Coastal Ferry Act.
The Liberals passed the legislation in 2003. It turned B.C. Ferries into a private corporation, with the ability to take loans and offer bonds, as well as contract-out many services.

Gregg Dow, a crew member on the Queen of Nanaimo has been assigned to run the campaign.
Dow said the push is aimed at forcing Gordon Campbell to hold public consultations on the Coastal Ferry Act that designed the system.

“The ferry system is an economic engine of the province,” Dow said.

“Higher and higher fares are not good for tourism, for manufacturing, for farming, businesses or the social fabric. The last thing we need to do right now is turn small islands into ghost towns.
“User pay? Is the highway to Stewart, or Kimberly, fully user pay? Is Translink? The Lions Gate Bridge? Do people really think they get on a bus and pay the full cost of runnig it? Why should ferry users?”

The website takes aim at several aspects of the legislation.

First, people did not necessarily have the time to digest the intent of legislation that the BCFMU says over time will transform B. C. Ferries from a public service in need of administrative overhaul, into a group of floating profit and loss centres driven by a business ideology in the pursuit of profit, not service.

Secondly, it points out that since privatization, the company has outstanding bond debts of $950 million and room for another $335 million in bank loans for new ferries, a total ot $1.285 billion in debt that taxpayers will inherit if the company fails.

To back its debt, the company has mortgaged its terminal leases, its vessels and even its guaranteed annual provincial subsidy, says the union.

The need to generate money that used to be part of regular provincial spending will drive fares up massively by 2011 – by a minimum of 103 per cent on the Bowen Island route, 82 per cent on the Sunshine Coast, 79 per cent between Port Hardy and Prince Rupert, and 43 per cent on Vancouver Island – Lower Mainland routes, it said.

The figures are based on two per cent inflation and include fuel surcharges up to 2008.

The call for review echoes the many concerns of North Coast MLA Gary Coons, NDP ferries critic, who has spent the past month touring ferry-dependent communities to hear concerns.
Last fall Coons called for a freeze on fare increases and a review of the Coastal Ferry Act.
However, Transport Minister Kevin Falcon said fare increases under the NDP in the 1990’s were greater than they have been in the past seven years under the Liberals.

“And you haven’t got politicians interfering,” he said. “I think that’s a far better system than what we had in the 90’s. what you had in the 90’s was a corporation that was basically bankrupt.
“The NDP had to write of $1 billion and they, frankly, pissed away half a billion dollars on three boats that are still in the harbour in North Vancouver.

“So, the question you have to ask is: What does saveourferries.com want us to go back to?
“Apparently, they want us to go back to government running the ferry fleet I’m asking: “For what benefit?”