A week after saying he “absolutely understands the anxiety” of ferry-dependent communities around pandemic-related cuts at BC Ferries and vowing the government was working “to protect as many routes as we possibly can,” Premier John Horgan said “there hasn't been a particularly sympathetic ear” for his requests for federal support for the ferry system.
While some of the sailings cut early in the pandemic have resumed on routes such as Langdale-Horseshoe Bay and Horseshoe Bay-Nanaimo, other routes that had not been cut earlier, including Earls Cove-Saltery Bay, Powell River-Texada Island, and Horseshoe Bay to Bowen Island, are now facing service reductions.
The issue of federal support, in particular through the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS), and the potential long-term impact of ongoing losses of fare revenue at BC Ferries have been raised by Coast Reporter at the premier’s regular briefings in the past, and it came up again June 17.
Horgan was asked if the federal government doesn’t come up with cash for BC Ferries whether the province would, as it did to restore sailings cut by the previous government in 2014.
“We were right in 2014 and we're right today,” Horgan said. “We’re working collaboratively with BC Ferries to find a way forward… previous governments made changes to the governance structure and that has proven to be difficult at this time, but not insurmountable.”
Horgan said he was confident that he, Transportation Minister Claire Trevena, Finance Minister Carole James and BC Ferries can “get an outcome that’s in the interest of the people of British Columbia.”
“It can't be done unilaterally by BC Ferries or by the government of British Columbia. We need to have a collaborative approach and we’ve been engaged in that over the past number of weeks.”
Horgan isn’t the only voice lobbying the federal government to come to the table.
The Canadian Ferry Association, which is chaired by BC Ferries president Mark Collins, has been pressing for help to mitigate ongoing revenue losses for the nation’s ferry companies.
In a June 1 letter to federal Transportation Minister Marc Garneau, the association said, “While the ferry sector is prepared to weather economic downturns … it cannot be expected to absorb the financial setbacks which have occurred as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
The association is asking for all ferry companies, including BC Ferries, to be made eligible for the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy and for $155 million in support, which it says is only “a portion of the $453.75 million [in] losses that the sector estimates it has and will incur from March 15 to Aug. 31, 2020.”
The federal NDP, Conservatives and Bloc Québécois have written Garneau to support the association’s request.
Speaking on Eastlink Community TV’s Parliament Talkback June 11, West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky Country MP Patrick Weiler said he had a chance to meet with Collins and the ferry association after the association made a presentation to the finance committee in Ottawa in late May.
“I continue to advocate for more support,” Weiler said. “I know how important it is, but they’re very complex negotiations to have given that the tax structure [BC Ferries] has makes it ineligible for the wage subsidy as it’s currently set up… At this point we’re constantly looking for ways we can better support and maintain those types of critical services going forward.”
