Post by Low Light Mike on Feb 7, 2008 19:27:18 GMT -8
from Vancouver Sun, Feb.7/08:
tinyurl.com/38qfmy
===============
Bottom line for the ferries: The government's still the owner
Craig McInnes
Vancouver Sun
Thursday, February 07, 2008
Historian David Mitchell described W.A.C. Bennett as a politician in a hurry, more interested in results than ideology.
"He believed that government's role was to regulate, referee, encourage and, occasionally, to intervene," Mitchell wrote in his authoritative 1983 biography, W.A.C. Bennett and the Rise of British Columbia.
Fifty years ago, Bennett got tired of waiting for the private companies that operated ferries in British Columbia. He wanted a ferry service that reflected his vision of a growing province. The two main players then in the business, the CPR and Black Ball Ferries, were dragging their feet on investing in new ferries and routes.
Bennett was no socialist, but neither was he a dogmatic free-enterpriser. He got the government into the ferry business because the private sector was not getting the job done.
In 1958 he launched what critics at the time derisively called Bennett's navy with two ships and two terminals. By the time he wrote his biography 25 years later, Mitchell was able to describe the B.C. ferry system without qualification as "the world's largest and best-run ferry service."
Within a generation, however, that reputation was in tatters and the Liberals led by Premier Gordon Campbell were able to use the sorry state of the Crown corporation as a stick to chase the New Democrats out of office in 2001.
The fast ferries that Glen Clark banked on for renewal of the aging fleet when he was premier became synonymous with grandiose planning and incompetent management.
In 2003, Campbell set the fleet off in a new direction, reforming BC Ferries as a company that is still publicly owned but with many of the trappings of a private corporation.
This week, the B.C. Ferry and Marine Workers' Union launched a website -- www.saveourferries.com -- as part of its campaign to try to turn back the clock, to undo the privatization and put responsibility for ferries squarely back in public hands.
The union makes some good points. The new "private" company has to pay more for borrowing than a Crown corporation would, and the higher costs contribute to higher fares.
But there is little hope that the Liberals are willing to take another look at the way BC Ferries is run. Despite some hiccups, the management of the corporation has managed to keep the ferries running, to keep most of its customers happy and to show progress on upgrading the terminals and the fleet.
The first of three new ships conceived, designed and built by the new corporation is now being proudly displayed before being put in service on the Nanaimo-Horseshoe Bay run. The other two are under construction in Germany. They have maintained the status that is magic to all governments -- on time and on budget.
The Liberals compare that to the only big project they handled on their own, the Vancouver convention centre expansion, which is already more than $300 million over budget.
So there is little incentive for the government to take on any political responsibility for the operation as long as it can continue to get away with the charade that BC Ferries is being run as a private business without political interference.
In fact, the quasi-private facade that was pasted on the ferry fleet may provide the government with a political shield, but it does not protect it or taxpayers from the consequences of bad management.
Nor does it shield management for long against political interference.
Any debts incurred by the "private" BC Ferries would have to be eaten by the government in the event of a business failure.
Coastal communities would still have to be served. BC Ferries would have to be reconstituted in some other form with taxpayers picking up the tab.
The real issues at the time BC Ferries was "privatized" is how well the corporation was managed, how well it served the public and at what cost.
Those are still the main issues today.
If the union and ferry users are unhappy with how the system is being run, they should take their complaints to the owner, which is still the government.
The debate over "privatization" is a waste of time.
Bennett would have moved on to more important things.
cmcinnes@png.canwest.com
© The Vancouver Sun 2008
===========
tinyurl.com/38qfmy
===============
Bottom line for the ferries: The government's still the owner
Craig McInnes
Vancouver Sun
Thursday, February 07, 2008
Historian David Mitchell described W.A.C. Bennett as a politician in a hurry, more interested in results than ideology.
"He believed that government's role was to regulate, referee, encourage and, occasionally, to intervene," Mitchell wrote in his authoritative 1983 biography, W.A.C. Bennett and the Rise of British Columbia.
Fifty years ago, Bennett got tired of waiting for the private companies that operated ferries in British Columbia. He wanted a ferry service that reflected his vision of a growing province. The two main players then in the business, the CPR and Black Ball Ferries, were dragging their feet on investing in new ferries and routes.
Bennett was no socialist, but neither was he a dogmatic free-enterpriser. He got the government into the ferry business because the private sector was not getting the job done.
In 1958 he launched what critics at the time derisively called Bennett's navy with two ships and two terminals. By the time he wrote his biography 25 years later, Mitchell was able to describe the B.C. ferry system without qualification as "the world's largest and best-run ferry service."
Within a generation, however, that reputation was in tatters and the Liberals led by Premier Gordon Campbell were able to use the sorry state of the Crown corporation as a stick to chase the New Democrats out of office in 2001.
The fast ferries that Glen Clark banked on for renewal of the aging fleet when he was premier became synonymous with grandiose planning and incompetent management.
In 2003, Campbell set the fleet off in a new direction, reforming BC Ferries as a company that is still publicly owned but with many of the trappings of a private corporation.
This week, the B.C. Ferry and Marine Workers' Union launched a website -- www.saveourferries.com -- as part of its campaign to try to turn back the clock, to undo the privatization and put responsibility for ferries squarely back in public hands.
The union makes some good points. The new "private" company has to pay more for borrowing than a Crown corporation would, and the higher costs contribute to higher fares.
But there is little hope that the Liberals are willing to take another look at the way BC Ferries is run. Despite some hiccups, the management of the corporation has managed to keep the ferries running, to keep most of its customers happy and to show progress on upgrading the terminals and the fleet.
The first of three new ships conceived, designed and built by the new corporation is now being proudly displayed before being put in service on the Nanaimo-Horseshoe Bay run. The other two are under construction in Germany. They have maintained the status that is magic to all governments -- on time and on budget.
The Liberals compare that to the only big project they handled on their own, the Vancouver convention centre expansion, which is already more than $300 million over budget.
So there is little incentive for the government to take on any political responsibility for the operation as long as it can continue to get away with the charade that BC Ferries is being run as a private business without political interference.
In fact, the quasi-private facade that was pasted on the ferry fleet may provide the government with a political shield, but it does not protect it or taxpayers from the consequences of bad management.
Nor does it shield management for long against political interference.
Any debts incurred by the "private" BC Ferries would have to be eaten by the government in the event of a business failure.
Coastal communities would still have to be served. BC Ferries would have to be reconstituted in some other form with taxpayers picking up the tab.
The real issues at the time BC Ferries was "privatized" is how well the corporation was managed, how well it served the public and at what cost.
Those are still the main issues today.
If the union and ferry users are unhappy with how the system is being run, they should take their complaints to the owner, which is still the government.
The debate over "privatization" is a waste of time.
Bennett would have moved on to more important things.
cmcinnes@png.canwest.com
© The Vancouver Sun 2008
===========
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