"We have been shafted again."
That's what members of the Sunshine Coast Ferry Advisory Committee are saying after the recent announcement that Coast residents will be paying from 20 cents to $3 more per round trip between Langdale and Horseshoe Bay.
Ed Steeves, chair of the advisory group, calls into question the surcharge's validity.
"If we compare our fuel surcharges with those of route number 30 (Tsawwassen/Duke Point), we find the following: for route number 30 the distance is 37 miles and the travelling time is 120 minutes; for route number three the distance is 20 miles (return) and the traveling time 80 minutes. Therefore, it stands to reason that our fuel surcharges should be some 30 per cent lower than for route number 30," said Steeves, who notes route number 30 was actually hit with smaller surcharges than our local route.
The added surcharges for the Langdale/Horseshoe Bay route are as follows: foot passengers, 40 cents; vehicles, $1.50; overheight vehicles, $3; commercial, 20 cents per foot passenger; buses, 20 cents per foot passenger.
Those surcharges compared to the increases given the Tsawwassen/Duke Point run are higher in all categories except the overheight vehicle category. The full list of surcharges from that route are: foot passengers, 35 cents; vehicles, $1.35; overheight vehicles, $3; commercial, 15 cents per foot passenger; and buses, 10 cents per foot passenger.
"Our Ferry Advisory Com-mittee has made two detailed submissions to the B.C. Ferry Commissioner, asking him to mandate that our fuel surcharges be not higher than those for the major routes, of which route 30 is one," said Steeves. "Obviously, our valid strong arguments have fallen on deaf ears and B.C. Ferries continues its past practice of shafting the residents on our southern Sunshine Coast. We are having the highest fares based on loading plus distance. We have the smallest resident's discounts (pre-paid ticket discounts). And now we have to pay the highest fuel surcharges. This is not fair or defensible and it reeks of discrimination."
Steeves' group has been working with the ferry corporation to get fair and equitable rates for Coast residents who have no choice but to use the ferry service to reach the mainland.
Steeves says all of the committee's work and research is being ignored by a company that "feels they can just push us around."
Recently the committee presented its research and reasons for minimizing the Langdale/Horseshoe Bay route surcharge to B.C. Ferry Commissioner Martin Crilly. He was scheduled to make his decision on whether or not to approve the proposed surcharge on July 24.
However the "approved" surcharges were posted on the B.C. Ferries website on July 22. Gibsons Mayor Barry Janyk is challenging the commissioner's impartiality with the ferry corporation.
"I hate to be a conspiracy weirdo here, but the fare rate increases appear to have been up on the B.C. Ferries website almost two full days before the decision was apparently made and communicated. Fait accompli is a term that comes to mind," said Janyk.
His inquiry to the commissioner on this anomaly garnered this reply by email from the deputy commissioner Alan Eastwood:"The official order re fuel surcharges was placed on the commission website at about 8:45 a.m. on July 24 and sent officially to B.C. Ferries shortly before 9 a.m. B.C. Ferries provided numerous worksheets to the commission at our request, and one of those may have been the source," said Eastwood.
Commissioner Crilly is now away on holidays until August.
"I have advised Mr. Eastwood the answer is not good enough and I will be making further enquiries," said Janyk.
The ferry advisory committee is also planning to press for answers.
"We shall pursue this unfairness and hopefully somebody will listen," said Steeves.
B.C. Ferries announced the surcharges on all routes officially on Monday, July 25, saying the hike is necessary to cover climbing fuel costs.
"The company expects its annual fuel bill will exceed $72 million this year, up from $50 million in 2004. B.C. Ferries consumes over 123 million litres of marine diesel a year," said an information bulletin from the ferry corporation.For a full listing of all the routes and their new fares, you can visit the B.C. Ferries website at www.bcferries.ca.
