Highway or Business?

[Retrovision]

I love the ferries as much as the rest of you folks here, but any long-time British Columbian with a reasonable ammount of common-sense (as few as there may be of us) knows that the only sollution that makes true economical sense is a bridge link.

[Low Light Mike]

Stick it in your ear, McGeer !

I love your use of irony, Mr. Gypsy......

[Low Light Mike]

I just experienced two northern-gulf-islands routes this past week: Campbell River - Quadra, and Quadra-Cortes.

Both strike me as being very clearly a "highway", rather than a business. Sure there was some entreprenurial opportunity, but that was mostly in the form of pubs located near the terminals !.

The Discovery-Islands tourist brochure includes a ferry schedule, and they actually note certain sailing times for tourists to kindly please avoid.....ie. to give the locals a chance to get to their work and to do their business & errands. Cortes Island's new-age retreat/resort "HollyHock" actually encourages its guests to park their cars in Campbell River, and to take a water taxi straight to Cortes, in order to not inconvenience the regular Cortes ferry users.

Now, we just travelled these routes in July, but it was mid week, and the sailings were pretty full on both routes.

Campbell River - Quadra appears to be a very busy (and consistently busy) route. No question about it, this is a highway, not a business. The regular ferry users do not want to see ridership increased.....like I said, they are lobbying the tourists to please take non-rush-hour sailings. So this full-capacity route (same as Crofton-Vesuvius) has it's deck-space more as a scarce-resource, rather than as an economic-opportunity. The Powell River Queen is a good vessel for this route, for the deck space alone: 5 lanes of traffic of any hight. It's just the passenger lounge area upstairs that's overkill for this 10-minute route.....good for a quick pee, and not much else.

RE the Quadra-Cortes route, this 40 minute crossing is also very much a highway, not a business. Deck space on the 3-lane Tenaka is scarce here too, especially for the 1 lane of overhight only.....as there are building supply trucks, freezer-trucks for food supplies, and septic pump trucks that take up the overhight space (that's what we saw onboard). The 1st sailing from Quadra to Cortes was full for us, midweek on Wednesday morning. Some tourists, but from our visits in the passenger lounges this was mostly locals (judging by the length of the ladies armpit hair).

So for these gulf island routes, the main traffic is those who transport essential goods & services, and to allow locals their necessary trips off-island for business and appointments etc.

It seems to me that the Northern summer routes (inside passage day, and discovery coast) are the only 2 pure tourist (and I'd argue that same for the Mill Bay's purpose too).

From what I've seen of Gabriola, Vesuvius, Galiano, Quadra, Cortes, Texada.......it's all an essential road service.

Now, to the question of who should be paying for such an essential road service, that's another question......

[Scott]

Great example of the ferries being a highway. I'd agree with you, that those routes are especially important to business and residents, and less so for tourism. We either help pay for continued ferry service, or we build them a bridge.

Here in the Lower Mainland, we have the government build us bridges... it's costly, but it pays off in the long-run because of the population. On the islands, we go with a cheaper option - ferries. Is it cheaper in the long run? I don't know. Maybe when the demand gets up to needing a 200-car ferry, it would be more economical to build a bridge to Quadra Island. Remember, though, for Quadra, even though the distance isn't too far between Campbell River and Quadra Island, it is a busy shipping lane, so the bridge would have to be quite high... so you're looking in the hundreds of millions of dollars. A bridge to Cortes, of course, is out of the question. I love the Tenaka, but they really do need a bigger ship.

[BrianWilliams]

Campbell River - Quadra - Cortes:

You bet, the BCF boats are floating highway segments.

Some good arguments:

Should we British Columbians subsidize island lives; where Quadra and Cortes residents enjoy rural life, but have affordable, frequent access to big city supplies and services?

Are we unfair to similar communities (Refuge Cove, Alert Bay and Minstrel Island come to mind) because we do not give BC Ferries' service to them? Are these tiny places all vital parts of the BC coast?

I don't have a quick answer. I'd like to hear some opinions from other folks.

[Neil]

'Nanaimo, I know that, elsewhere in this forum, you've expressed reservations as to the wisdom of paying for other peoples' decisions to live in far flung communities by subsidizing their transportation.

I respect your concerns, but personally, I have no problem with some of my tax dollars going to maintain that stretch of highway that connects Outer Dognap to the rest of the country, or to run that ferry across Sasquatch Lake, cutting down on highway time. I think Canada has always been a collection of isolated communities, and our history has been partly about blazing trails and roads and railways to out of the way locales, either to open up opportunities, or just to keep us together. I think we'd be very much the poorer if we let those who live in smaller, inconvenient places pay their own way because of the choices they've made.

I like to think of the settlements in some of our more remote corners as being part of what gives Canada character, and just as I'm happy to help provide the tax dollars for a performing arts centre in the Peace country, I'm also happy to help with their roads.

I think it's just part of being a part of the larger 'community', in the proper sense of the word.

[BrianWilliams]

Just for fun, while y'all ponder the big issue.

Cortes Island has eccentric people, but it's also got a fine, white sand beach at Mansons Landing; pretty in February. Who needs Cancun?

[Low Light Mike]

HornbyGuy:

I find that by spending time in those outlying communities, that I see my old points of view on some issues changing.

When I visited Cortes this week, I actually didn't think about my taxes paying for their lifestyle.....instead I just enjoyed visiting another part of my home province. I saw a different way of life, and a different need for ferry-service, than I was used to seeing in my own life.

Maybe what I'm discovering, is that when you put yourself in someone else's situation, you begin to see things from their point of view too.

[Neil]

flugelhorn said:

HornbyGuy:

I find that by spending time in those outlying communities, that I see my old points of view on some issues changing.

.

... kind of like mine did, years ago, when there was a large number of Haida people on the 'Rupert, returning to Skidegate. The ship resounded with drums and singing... and I had thought everyone on there would be tourists, like us...

(by the way, above post is proof positive that Cortes Island has small, furry werewolves, hopefully not dangerous.)

Mansons Landing is gorgeous. Has anyone done any camping at Smelt Bay? (Sorry. Off topic.)

[Low Light Mike]

Re Smelt Bay on Cortes Island:

That was a gorgeous place !. At the end of the provincial park (by the beach, day use area) is a private driveway that's accessed by driving thru the park's picnic area. That private house on the beach at Smelt Bay is where my late father in law grew up. His grandparents moved there from Toronto to homestead, and his parents met on Cortes.....and he (my father in law) was raised there for his first 10 years.

I'd heard the family history stories many times, but when I actually walked the property this past week and laid my eyes on the beauty of it all, including the sandy beach, the view across the strait to south Campbell River, etc, it took my breath away.

oh yeah, original topic: To my wife's ancestors, the ferries of the time were the Union Steamships, and they were a "travelway", run as a business.