Begin forwarded message:
From: DG Courtney <vrcourtney@gmail.com>
Subject: BCF Route 4 and Route 6 - The way forward. Response to Articles in today's Driftwood - Salt Spring Island - 26 January 2022.
Date: January 26, 2022 at 11:59:24 PM PST
To: Harold Swierenga <haroldswierenga@gmail.com>, Gary Holman <ssidirector@crd.bc.ca>
Cc: Darryl Martin <darryljmartin@yahoo.com>, Kylie Coates <coateskylie@yahoo.ca>, Tom Toynbee <tytssi@yahoo.ca>, Laura Patrick <lpatrick@islandstrust.bc.ca>, Peter Grove <pgrove@islandstrust.bc.ca>, Peter Luckham <pluckham@islandstrust.bc.ca>, mark.collins@bcferries.com, brian.anderson@bcferries.com, Darin Guenette <darin.guenette@bcferries.com>, "BC Ferry Commission, BC BCFC:EX" <info@bcferrycommission.ca>, rob.fleming.mla@leg.bc.ca, john.horgan.mla@leg.bc.ca, "Olsen.MLA, Adam" <Adam.Olsen.MLA@leg.bc.ca>, Elizabeth May <elizabeth.may.c1a@parl.gc.ca>, sonia.furstenau.MLA@leg.bc.ca, Al Siebring <mayor@northcowichan.ca>, council@northcowichan.ca
Dear Harold,
We saw your piece in the Driftwood today and that of BCF in defence. Have you and Gary ever thought that by using the Queen of Cumberland on Route 4 it would be the answer to the traffic woes in Peak Travel Times - June, July and August in 2022?
With Route 5 Commissioning the Salish Heron this Spring, that frees up the Queen of Cumberland to serve Route 5a to Saturna - Population 350. Is there room to enhance Route 4 with its 12.5 kt cruise speed and huge capacity of 112 vehicles?
The Quinitsa is a complete Misfit for Route 4. With an 8 Kt cruise speed, it's a non starter. The costs to operate Route 4 is roughly 3x the cost to service Route 6 per capita. We can serve Route 6 with 2 ferries and still come close to the cost per capita to operate Route 4 with just the Skeena. Mr. Toynbee would know better, he’s excellent on the data front.
BCF needs the MV Quinitsa as a spare. Seriously?, they have the logistics to figure that out when a vessel goes down unserviceable. For instance this week when they pulled the Island Aurora off the testing on Route 19 (Nanaimo - Gabriola) to serve on the Powell River - Comox run. Leading up to their 2 New ECO Island Class Ferry service which we have modelled Route 6 after. With us using two 40 year old vessels and a tie up situation for the spare vessel when peak demand drops after 1900 in the evening.
Sorry fellows, your arguments are somewhat hollow and disingenuous today and perhaps supported by BCF VP Brian Anderson. Gabriola Island and the Southern Gulf Islands FAC didn't get $195 Million worth of New Eco Friendly Ferries this Spring by excluding the engagement of their Communities over the last decade. They earned it by Campaigning BCF. In our opinion your appointments to the SSI - FAC have been simply ineffective over the last decade and the reason we have traffic gridlock.
Darryl Martin, sadly your piece didn't make it into the Driftwood this week on behalf of the 200+ Businesses you serve. Respectfully, you should consider removing yourself from the FAC and convince Kylie Coates to resume his position. He's actually the only individual Member of the FAC we've heard from in the last 4 weeks. You seem to be acting very much like your conflicted by the Chair & De-Facto Chair of the SSI FAC - Swierenga & Holman.
The one thing this Petition has done in short order has made our appointed FAC display some form of transparency to the Community after all these years.
Harold & Gary, we find it hard to believe that 2 individuals who purport to be Community minded, attempt to thwart/quash a very sensible, plausible and pragmatic solution supported by approximately 2000 Concerned Members of Our Community and the Communities who supply our Goods and Services. Backstopped by a heap of BCF Data. The Fix for Route Six is the most cost effective approach for any issue in the BCF Inter Island System currently and mitigates ferry traffic gridlock at Crofton, Vesuvius Bay and Fulford Harbour. Sadly, your focus as South Enders seems to be only Fulford Harbour. Please convey that to Mayor Siebring, one of our biggest supporters and the Town of Crofton, Chemainus, Ladysmith and Duncan to name a few, that it’s all about you two.
BCF CEO Mark Collins gets this. He didn't fall into the job, he was a strategic planner working in the trenches prior to his promotion to the top job.
BCF VP Brian Anderson we've been following your comments to the Nanaimo & Gabriola Communities as you introduce the 2 New ECO Island Class Ferries on Route 19 at a cost off $100 Million plus Infrastructure costs. Is the Community of Salt Spring Island envious? In lieu of that BCF statement of October 2021, conveyed on behalf of CEO Mark Collins that the MV Quinsam should serve us well until 2035. Answer - An Unequivocal - Hell Yess!
"September 15, 2020 - “Despite easing of travel restrictions, we are forecasting a sustained downturn in passenger and vehicle traffic for the next two to three years and financial losses consistent with this downturn,” Guenette said."
Oh Good Heaven’s! How gullible does BC Ferries think Salt Spring Islanders are? BC Ferries was given $308 Million in grants to Re-Start BC this time last year and posted a $21 Million profit on March 31/2021 - their fiscal year. As for traffic we bounced back in June of 2021 to 19% above 2019 Pre Pandemic levels. BC Ferries please, stop blaming the Pandemic for your inaction. You’ve been compensated with plenty of taxpayer dollars. Start with tendering the Construction of the New Crofton Terminal for a start.
Brian Anderson, your advertisement in the Driftwood today doesn’t convince the Patrons of Route 6 who use the this routing on daily basis that you have a clue of the issues we experience. We asked our CRD Director to come and join us last Summer on a Monday or a Thursday around 1330 to watch the madness unfold. Of course being a let’s have Study, perhaps let’s form a Task Force or maybe we can fob it off onto the Provincial Government kinda guy, he never showed. By the way I don’t think you, Mark or Darin have bowed to enter the gauntlet of one way traffic at either of the 3 Terminals. Route 6 has been neglected, some suggest abandoned by BC Ferries and sadly our own FAC for the last decade.
That’s the salient point, neither party seems to care. The lip service is simply not acceptable anymore.
Disappointed, David on behalf of the Patrons of Route 6.
Mobile 250-537-7771