Powell River-Sunshine Coast MLA Nicholas Simons blasted the provincial government in the legislature last week for giving B.C. Ferries' board members a pay increase on the same day fares went up.
The board of directors voted themselves a 60 per cent pay increase on April 1, the same day travellers started paying 7.3 per cent more on the three major routes and an average of four per cent on the remaining routes.
Directors will receive $48,000 a year for their part-time work, up from $30,000. Board chairwoman Elizabeth Harrison also received a pay hike, from $105,000 to $140,000 a year.
Simons, a New Democratic Party (NDP) MLA, pointed out that many appointed directors to B.C. Ferries' board have ties to the B.C. Liberals and Premier Gordon Campbell.
"This outrageous pay raise to Campbell's friends on the B.C. Ferries board is an insult to people in my constituency who have been severely hurt by dramatic fare increases," said Simons. "The Campbell government is completely out of touch with coastal communities."
When New Democrats confronted Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon in the legislature about the impact of ferry fare increases last February, Simons added, he responded with only two words, "Boo hoo."
"The response from this government to people affected by fare increases is arrogant and an indication of their misplaced priorities," said Simons.
Falcon agreed with the New Democrats on the issue of the pay hike for board members.
He said in the legislature on April 15 that he phoned Harrison.
"I made it clear that the position of this government is that I think that is far too generous an increase," said Falcon.However, Falcon also said the ferry corporation has been structured so that it is independent of direct political interference."The decision they made was based on an independent report they had by a resourcing firm called Hewitt and Associates," he said. "I happened to disagree with the conclusion of that. I let the chair of the board know that we disagree with that and that we didn't think that was a particularly wise decision, but they are independent."
NDP ferry critic Gary Coons has visited more than 30 coastal communities since November as part of a tour on rising ferry fares. He's been meeting residents and hosting public forums on Vancouver Island, the North Coast, Gulf Islands and the Sunshine Coast.
"Communities up and down the coast of B.C. have said the same thing everywhere I've been. Their lives and businesses have been devastated by the fare increases," said Coons. "Now there's salt in the wound knowing B.C. Liberal friends have been rewarded for those increases with a much fatter pay cheque."
