This petition is to secure improvements to the operations of ferry system to Bell Island, NL. 

1. The Bell Island Intra-Provincial Ferry System needs a shore-based manager to oversee the operations of the ferry.  Too often, the manager responsible is unaware of the issues as they affect the population and unable to respond because of the remote location of the current office. This issue was evidenced prior to problems created during the Covid 19 pandemic.

2. More frequent runs and accomodations for higher numbers of travellers on the ferry are needed during the Covid 19 pandemic.

a. The current reduction of lanes for vehicle traffic cannot accommodate the travelling vehicles. All lanes must be used to capacity and travellers can abide by the social distancing reccomendations of public health inside their vehicles. 

b. The restriction to 100 passengers & 12 walk-on passengers per run cannot meet the requirements of travellers in the Covid 19 Level 2 alert level now in effect. More travellers are taking the ferry as restrictions lift and people are returning to work. A greater number of travellers is placing a greater strain on the system. Walk-on passengers can obey social distancing reccommendations by staying on the open air deck or seating distantly as needed inside the passenger cabin.

c. There must be more scheduled runs to accomodate traffic each day. The break between runs designed to allow for cleaning is causing unnecessary delays.

d. There must be more scheduled runs to accommodate the high volume of traffic in the morning and the evening. The workers who currently depend on the ferry to commute to work are facing more hardship with the current schedule. This must be of paramount concern for any scheduling changes considered now and in the future for the community to survive.