STRINGS ATTACHED
Ferries bailout has caveats
VICTORIA B.C. Ferries is expected to return sailings to pre-pandemic levels, freeze fares and provide a comprehensive business case in order to access new government bailout money, says the province’s transportation minister.
Claire Trevena said Tuesday in a joint announcement with the federal government that B.C. Ferries is eligible for combined federal and provincial transportation aid dollars, but the money will come with conditions.
“We want to ensure potential provincial and federal Safe Restart funding helps B.C. Ferries to continue to deliver service,” she said. “But it must be done in a way that ensures the interests of people and coastal communities are front and centre.”
Those conditions include the quasi-private ferry corporation not applying for any extraordinary rate hikes due to revenue losses caused by a sharp decline in traffic during the pandemic. “We don’t think that the best way forward for
B.C. Ferries would be to be increasing fares,” said Trevena.
“We are looking at a true public interest.”
Instead, B.C. Ferries’ corporate board, along with the B.C. Ferry Authority Board and the provincial government, will set up a task force to deliver a business case for any aid, which may or may not be fully granted.
Trevena said this will “ensure that when B.C. Ferries is ready to bring forward a comprehensive relief proposal, all necessary information is made available to support the government’s decision.
“Our decisions on applying a portion of the federal funding, along with our own matched funding for B.C. Ferries, will be based on considerations that puts public interest first.”
B.C. Ferries CEO Mark Collins said in a statement that the ferry corporation intends to keep system capacity at 20 per cent greater than demand to ensure access for essential goods, workers and travellers. He praised the two levels of government for the help.
“We look forward to working with the province to learn details,” said Collins. “B.C. Ferries welcomes anything the province can do to help keep travel affordable and healthy, while meeting the needs of coastal communities.”
Federal Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson said Ottawa decided to include B.C. Ferries in the $540-million B.C. pandemic transit fund, along with B.C. Transit and TransLink, because it recognizes the importance of the marine system for coastal communities. The decision ends months of lobbying by the province for the federal government to recognize the ferry system as public transportation.
“I think it’s entirely appropriate in a province like British Columbia that we are thinking about the transit needs of all communities, not simply those folks who live in large cities, and that is fundamentally why B.C. Ferries was included,” said Wilkinson.
The B.C. government will match the federal funds, creating a pot of more than $1 billion available for the three transit agencies.
The exact allocation of funding to each transit agency is not yet known.