Tourism stakeholders are celebrating a major victory across the Cariboo-Chilcotin and coastal British Columbia after hearing the provincial government will bring back a BC Ferries summer service between Port Hardy and Bella Coola in 2018.
South Cariboo resident and regional tourism leader Pat Corbett is among the experts in the field from several industry groups who have been working hard to bring back seasonal direct ferry service to the Great Bear Rainforest aboriginal tourism route since its cancellation in April 2014.
Along with some other tourism leaders, much of Corbett’s work during his time as past chair of the Cariboo Chilcotin Coast Tourism Association was at the leading edge of the battle to bring back the ferry and the huge tourist economy so vital to the B.C. Coast.
The importance of opening up the region is mostly about the province’s aboriginal tourism and the economic impacts the ferry service carries along with its passengers to the Great Bear Rainforest, he says.
Corbett adds this “very significant” announcement on Sept. 6 comes after a two-year journey and many, many meetings with government officials that will bring “a lot of future business” across the whole region.
“The [increased] volume of business that will pass through our Cariboo-Chilcotin Coast region will be measured in the hundreds of people per week.”
The Mid Coast Working Group (MCWG), an aboriginal and non-aboriginal tourism industry partnership, has been working since 2014 to bring back this service through extensive research, studies, and developing and analyzing options for marine transportation on the province’s coastal tourism destination.
Corbett explains that in addition to connecting Vancouver Island to the B.C. coastline and, therefore, the Interior, it will also provide improved commuter service along the mid-coast, including smaller communities of Bella Bella, Klemtu, Shearwater and Ocean Falls.
“The attraction is the Great Bear Rainforest, and then we’re essentially tying together the island to the mainland via Port Hardy/Bella Coola.”
Corbett says the expanded new service will be run along the same route (as the former “Route 40” ferry), with multiple sailings each week connecting Port Hardy to Bella Coola and Vancouver Island to the Mainland.
“The vessel will be different and the frequency of sailings will be further enhanced.”
This will also be “big news” for the South Cariboo communities along the route to Bella Coola from Quesnel, Barkerville (and the Rockies) to the north and from the south via Cache Creek and Whistler.
“The reverse flow will also happen, where people on Vancouver Island will take the ferry across to Bella Coola, tour the Chilcotin, and then turn north or south, and they’ll continue on to enjoy the rest of the Cariboo region.”
Mid-Coast Working Group co-chair Keith Henry, who is also president and CEO of Aboriginal Tourism Association of Canada, says this successful return of the direct ferry route is one of the “best examples of aboriginal and non-aboriginal tourism industry partnerships” in the country.
“Aboriginal tourism along B.C.’s coast is yet to realize its full potential and [this] marks an important step in our work to build new experiences and market this incredible destination to the world.”
