‘All hands on deck’ over cruise ships

After reassuring everyone the threat would never materialize, the B.C. cabinet on Tuesday called “all hands on deck” and is now trying to cope with it.

The lucrative Alaska cruise ship trade hangs in the balance, but B.C. is playing catch-up when it comes to staying on top of the issue. In the long-term, it could turn from “issue” to “crisis,” based on rhetoric from the U.S. Senate.

Two Alaska senators stickhandled a proposed change in U.S. sea law through the Senate last week. It’s a move to resurrect their tourism industry.

It’s not law yet, but it’s a lot closer than Horgan and Tourism Minister Melanie Mark expected.

The U.S. requires all foreign-built, flagged or crewed ships (virtually all of them) operating from U.S. ports to stop at a foreign port before they can dock again in the U.S. The century-old measure was designed to protect U.S. shipbuilding.

That makes stops in Victoria, Vancouver or Prince Rupert mandatory on the hundreds of Seattle-Alaska cruise trips.

With those ports closed due to the pandemic, the Alaskans proposed a amendment to let them sail past B.C. for the rest of the year.

The border closure was a nobrainer last year, but the senators are unhappy with how Canada extended the closure to February 2022 with no consultation on the idea of resuming cruising with strict new safety measures.

When they moved the Alaska Tourism Recovery Act in March as a workaround, Mark brushed off concerns and appeared disengaged.

Even last week she was dismissive. “It hasn’t gone anywhere … the possibility of passing is very unlikely.”

The bill was passed by the House of Representatives on Thursday and now only needs President Joe Biden’s signature to become law.

It’s an international matter between two federal governments, but B.C. is caught in the middle and should be deeply engaged in protecting the tourism industry. There hasn’t been much sign of that so far.

One senator talked about erasing the foreign stopover requirement permanently. Sen. Mike Lee said the foreign stopover requirement means “we are shipping our tourism and economic activity abroad to other countries … Instead of welcoming tourists and the dollars they spend … we drive them to Canada.”

Cabinet ministers have now figuratively donned their lifejackets as Mark told the legislature: “All hands are on deck.”

She said cabinet ministers are actively discussing it with Ottawa counterparts and Horgan is meeting with the senators soon.

But Mark called out critics for “trying to drive home the narrative that it is going to be a permanent measure.”

Horgan told reporters Tuesday he’s taking “great comfort” in the specific mention of temporary in the legislation.

It isn’t just Opposition critics worried about a permanent change; some travel industry leaders are concerned as well.

The resumption of cruise ship stops isn’t going to happen in the next number of weeks, Horgan said.

In the meantime, he defers all questions in the house on the issue to Mark, who considers them all fear-mongering and alarmist.