B.C. Ferries removes fuel rebate amid dispute over funding
VICTORIA — Ticket prices are going up for B.C. Ferries passengers after the provincial government and ferry corporation failed to come to a deal over additional funding.
B.C. Ferries announced Tuesday it is removing the current “fuel rebate”, which had lowered ticket prices 2.9 per cent on major and minor routes and 1.9 per cent on northern routes since spring of 2016.
The move, effective June 27, will raise the price of a passenger ticket from Swartz Bay to Tsawwassen by 50 cents, to $17.20, and increase the price of a vehicle ticket by $1.70 to $57.50.
Prices will rise between 30 to 70 cents per ticket on minor routes.
B.C. Ferries president Mark Collins said changes simply cover the rising cost of diesel fuel, which is the second largest expense for the corporation.
“We’re just doing what we’ve always done, and it’s tied to the world price of fuel,” Collins said Tuesday. “If the price of fuel goes down, then the rebate can come back and that will be a good news story. Equally, if the price continues to go up for whatever factor pushes it that way, we may get to a point a surcharge is required. B.C. Ferries doesn’t benefit from any of this. This is purely paying fuel suppliers.”
B.C. Ferries had originally announced the price increases in May, but was met with stiff resistance from Premier John Horgan’s government. Transportation Minister Claire Trevena had said she was “surprised and disappointed” at the move and invited B.C. Ferries to “come to the table to work with us to maintain the fare freezes and reductions that British Columbians have voted for.”
Trevena opened the door to government funding to compensate B.C. Ferries, but the two sides could not come to a deal after almost three weeks of negotiations.
“It was just not possible to agree to,” Collins said of government’s offer, declining to get into specifics.
“There was just not a resolution that would have allowed the regulatory mechanism (of fuel surcharges and rebates) to work going forward. That was really important. Because this isn’t the last change to fuel prices, they are up and down all the time.”
The NDP campaigned in the 2017 election on freezing ferry fares on major routes while it reviewed the corporation’s finances. In April, the government gave B.C. Ferries $59 million to freeze major routes, reduce fares on other routes by 15 per cent, and return full discounts for seniors.
“We are disappointed that B.C. Ferries is raising the cost to ferry users by removing its fuel rebates,” Finance Minister Carole James said in a statement Tuesday. "We learned B.C. Ferries was planning to remove the fuel rebate and recently entered discussions with the company with hopes of a solution. However, an agreement could not be reached.”
B.C. Ferries says the cost of the fuel rebate fluctuated from approximately $9 million to $21 million per year.
B.C. Ferries was granted in 2004 the ability to set a fuel surcharge or rebate to help it mitigate the rise and fall of fuel prices. The changes don’t require government approval. There have been 19 adjustments since 2004 and Collins said the net impact on customers has balanced out over time.
A review of B.C. Ferries’ operations — which will not include whether to bring the quasi-private ferry corporation back into government — is expected to be done this month and studied over the summer by the government.