Gabriolans are welcoming a B.C. Ministry of Transportation announcement restoring ferry sailings to and from Nanaimo harbour.
In 2014, the B.C. government reduced sailings to a number of routes, including the Gabriola-Nanaimo run, as a cost-cutting measure, but on Friday, the ministry announced forthcoming increased service on 10 ferry routes for affected communities that would restore 2,700 round-trip sailings. In an e-mail, Steven Earle, Gabriola Ferry Advisory Committee chairman and Gabriola resident, said service restoration is something the committee has repeatedly requested. The 2014 cuts caused inconvenience, with cancellations equivalent to 834 round-trip sailings, he said.
“The net result was a schedule that was completely unworkable [with] massive overloads, dismal on-time performance, basically a disaster on all fronts,” Earle said. “B.C. Ferries simply could not maintain an acceptable quality of service without sufficient midday sailings. As a result, a very reluctant compromise was reached, with early morning sailings (5:15 a.m.) being cut in order to preserve access to later evening sailings. Consequently, we lost many valued residents of our community.
“Some of those who moved away included shift-workers, people who commuted to Vancouver and could no longer make an early Horseshoe Bay connection, and families with teenage children who had early sporting commitments in Nanaimo.”
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Sheila Malcolmson, Nanaimo MLA, Gabriola resident and a former Islands Trust council chairwoman, appreciated her government’s announcement and said ferry service is vital to Gabriola.
“Right now, even in the middle of the winter, you can find people missing sailings every day because they’re overloaded,” said Malcolmson. “That has cost for business as well. If you’re a washing machine repair person from Nanaimo coming over to Gabriola to do some service calls, if you end up then sitting in the ferry lineup for two hours before getting on the 20-minute sailing to come back to town, that’s a cost to your business and a cost to your family.”
The ministry told the News Bulletin in an e-mail that it hadn’t determined exact timing for the increased service and it would be dependent on “how fast B.C. Ferries can operationalize changes.”
Earle said the Gabriola committee will work with B.C. Ferries over the next couple of months to decide how best to restore service and the community will be consulted. Representatives from affected ferry advisory committees will meet with B.C. Ferries on Monday, Feb. 25, he said.
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