Cancelled ferries spark debate about proposed fines in B.C. legislature

There were turbulent waters at the legislature Wednesday, where ferry cancellations kicked off a heated question period.

“What do we see today? Continued missed sailings…and worse results for British Columbians,” said BC United leader Kevin Falcon.

Wednesday’s two cancelled sailings on the Swartz Bay – Tsawwassen route were triggered by a staffing shortage, two days after four new vice presidents started their roles with BC Ferries.

“You know they can somehow manage to find four more executives—earning between 300 and 460 thousand dollars a year—but apparently they can’t just find people to operate the ship,” said Falcon.

BC Ferries acknowledges it needs to hire more staff for its vessels, but maintains the new executive team isn’t taking away from the boots it needs on the ground.

“The size of our executive team has not increased,” said BC Ferries spokesperson, Deborah Marshall. “While we have promoted some new VP's, their positions have not been backfilled.”

Wednesday’s cancelled sailings came days after the government announced it would bring in fines against BC Ferries when it cancels sailings due to staff shortages.

“That was a move by the government to appear to be doing something, it’s not going to improve the situation,” quipped Green Party MLA Adam Olsen.

The fines won’t kick in until April 2024, and are tied to half a billion dollars in funding the province is providing BC Ferries—money being used to reduce fare increases for the next four years.

“This is why we are trying to raise the accountability in the company,” said Transportation Minister Rob Fleming, referring to the fines intended to correct a trend of cancelled sailings due to staffing shortages.

The fines are pegged at $7,000 for a cancelled major route and $1,000 for a smaller one.

“You don’t fine the corporation,” said Falcon. “That’s them giving them money, and then saying ‘give some of it back’ in these weak, puny fines that are meaningless to the corporation, but would be meaningful to the executive team.”

Fleming pushed back, saying the fines had some utility. “I don’t think the company should be able to save money on fuel like they did this morning and be able to add that to their retained earnings at the end of the year.”