Privatization of Services

[Doug]

Mainland-Vancouver Island:

• Tsawwassen-Swartz Bay
  
• Horseshoe Bay-Departure Bay
  
• Tsawwassen-Duke Point
  

Sunshine Coast:

• Horseshoe Bay-Langdale
  
• Earls Cove-Saltery Bay
  
• Powell River-Comox
  
• Horseshoe Bay-Bowen Island
  
• Powell River-Texada Island
  

Southern Gulf Islands:

• Tsawwassen-Southern Gulf Islands
  
• Swartz Bay-Southern Gulf Islands
  
• Swartz Bay-Saltspring Island
  
• Nanaimo-Gabriola Island
  
• Crofton-Vesuvius
  
• Chemainus-Thetus Island-Kuper Island
  
• Brentwood Bay-Mill Bay
  

Northern Gulf Islands:

• Campbell River-Quadra Island
  
• Vancouver Island-Denman Island
  
• Denman Island-Hornby Island
  
• Quadra Island-Cortes Island
  
• Port McNeill-Malcom Island-Cormorant Island
  

Northern:

• Inside Passage
  
• Discovery Coast Passage
  
• Queen Charlotte Islands
  
• Alliford-Skidegate
  

BC Ferries does have intentions to keep most routes in the system, but I was just wondering what you all think.

As for myself, I think very few should be contracted out. If any route has a chance to earn a profit, it is in better hands with BC Ferries than it is in some small fully private company.

As for routes, I mainly vote out the Discovery Coast Passage and Mill Bay routes (voted for "other"). Why? The routes are both unnecessary (not essential), and they don't earn a profit. Attracting more customers to those routes would likely be a long and hard process. The Inside Passage, however, is a very good opportunity for profit...they just need to build a bigger vessel to accommodate more traffic (and advertise the route more).

I may change my views on some routes depending on your explanation (mainly Cascade...) of why the route should be contracted out. I am ready to debate this, and am expecting Cascade to say "why doesn't BC Ferries open up the market - sell all routes - be more like Europe - after all - Europe is better".

[Mike C]

I say Sunshine Coast, as I see that BC Ferries is not squeezing enough out of these routes as they should. In other words, they are not doing a very good job to promote advertising for the wonderful little region. I see a huge profit and future for those little companies waiting to expand potential in BC. Routes 7 and 17 are losing money rapidly, and it's becoming a problem for BC Ferries, as they may be forced to contract out or do away with these routes, same with Mill-Brentwood, or Discovery Coast, like Doug said above. BC Ferries should write on the side of the Tsawwassen: Sunshine Coast's most beautiful shortcut.

Let the knife throwing, and debating begin. Feel free to rant against my idea.

[Low Light Mike]

I don't know enought about the legalities and issues to make a meaningful contribution to this debate. I'm not opposed to privitization in principle. My gut says that the Northern routes are most suited, because they are tourist orientated and not as essential as the gulf-island and mainline routes.

[Scott]

Don't you think there's room for additional traffic on the Northern routes?

I think there needs to be a ferry service that hits a lot of the towns along the coast... something like the Lady Rose... except newer and nicer, but the same concept. Even the mid-coast route that BC Ferries currently has. It's probably not a money maker though. However, they DID kick out a private business when they did go into the mid-coast business.

I think if someone wanted to, they could start a profitable cruise/ferry between Campbell River and Prince Rupert.. or Port Hardy and Prince Rupert. If it was advertised well, I'm sure there would be lots of people who would want to go on it. Of course the cruise ships are competition for the northern routes as well, but if you could package trips with tours of the islands, adventure trips, etc. it would probably work. The so called Great Bear Rainforest... the Kermodies... and there could be lots of opportunities for the Natives up there to "sell" their culture to tourists. In my opinion, there is a lot of growth potential on the Northern routes.

[Mike C]

To Ultra Walker:

Har har har. A very sarcastic picture.

"...as mainlander101 is in for another spin around the wheel, and it's a near miss for Ultra Walker... Viewers, this is why you should never privatize the Sunshine Coast without the consent of Ultra Walker..."

[Mike C]

We can all thank the NDP for an idea that nobody wanted - the FastCats. My dad as a tax payer was outraged to find out what his money was going into - a bad idea. The NDP and BC Ferries did it the bad way - buy big, sell cheap. Somebody on this forum (sorry, I can't remeber who) said that David Hahn and the rest of BC Ferries lacked vision for the future - and this is the result: billions of $ wasted into nothing, and to try and update a 40 year-old fleet at the last minute. David Hahn claims that the provincial government ran them into the ground before making them a crown corperation. As for me, I do not beleive this. I think solely (pardon my spelling) that this is thanks to the CEO of BC Ferries. David Hahn in my opinion has to much power, and is lacking some intellegence.

The Sunshine Coast would do good, if the right people run it. Example: if smart people run it, the people that can see what the ferry service will be like in the future (I'm not thinking of space shuttles, and robots and all this futuristic crap), they wil be succesful and perhaps only have to maintain a 20 year old fleet rather then a 40 year old one, hopefully. If the wrong kind of people run, people like David Hahn, the Sunshine Coast service will remain the same as it is now: slowly but surely crumbling apart, and may not even exist in 20 or so years, the economy of the Sunshine Coast will fall with the Ferries.

[kylefossett]

the ndp did not sell off the fastcats for cheap. the liberals were thees who sold ones who sold off the cats. this was nothing to do with the ferry corporation but all to do with making the previous government look bad

[kylefossett]

there was a study done that looked into what it would take to make these vessels work fine on the mainland- vancouver island routes. they could have been made feasible and then we would not of had a loss from these but actually a working sailing vessel or three still plying the waters of british columbia.

[Quinsam]

I, don't think any routes should be contracted out(Except the Mill Bay route). Some Ferries should be sold/retired: Queen of Esquimalt/Vancouver/Saanich. And one fastcat should have been kept to temporarily replace a vessel e.g(Nanaimo) During it's refit.