$5,000 opening bid on BC Ferry

[The Green Barbarian]

Love how the anti NDP crowd pulls out "fast ferries" like it's their silver bullet , while completely ignoring the actual financial facts on the matter.

hard to ignore the $500 million the idiot NDP blew on the fast ferries. One of the many reasons those scum were kicked out of office in 2001 with a 77-2 shellacking, and why they haven't won an election since.

[The Green Barbarian]

The 'Fast Ferry Scandal', as you like to call it was actually one of El Gordo's most spiteful creations.

I don't know who "El Gordo" is, but the Fast Ferry scandal was the result of the three brain cells shared by Adrian Dix and Glen Clark coming together to create the entire ferry disaster. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fast_Ferry_Scandal

I wish it was the worst thing those two NDP boneheads did, but unfortunately, that whole mess was overshadowed by their disgusting back-room deal they did in 1998 with the BCTF. No party in the history of BC has done more damage to the taxpayers and citizens of this province than those two scumbags in the period 1996 - 2000. How the dingbat Dix is actually still in government is a testament to just how rotten BC politics are and how much they need to change.

[alanjh595]

Fast ferry project poorly planned says Auditor General
CBC News

Glen Clark may be gone from the premier's office, but he's far from forgotten. Today he was one of the prime targets in a scathing report from Auditor General George Morfitt.

Morfitt says the fast ferry project Clark launched as minister was poorly planned and mismanaged.

Now B.C. Ferries is left with three fast cats that may end up losing money. It's perhaps the most damning report the auditor general has ever issued.

George Morfitt says flatly the fast ferry project was mismanaged from the start.

It was launched in 1994 by then minister Glen Clark. Morfitt blames Clark and the Crown Corporation Secretariat for going ahead without sufficient information or analysis.

Construction began in 1996 when Glen Clark was premier and Dan Miller the minister responsible. Workers were on the job even though the design was incomplete, contracts hadn't been signed and there was no business plan.

Morfitt says the budget of $210-million and the timetable were both unrealistic.

But he says senior executives at B.C. Ferries misled the board about the problems

[alanjh595]

B.C. fast ferries' voyage to oblivion leads to Middle East

The fast ferries began their slow but relentless voyage to oblivion almost 10 years ago. The starting point was March 1, 2000 and the cabinet room of the then New Democratic Party government.

BY THE VANCOUVER SUN JULY 30, 2009


The fast ferries began their slow but relentless voyage to oblivion almost 10 years ago. The starting point was March 1, 2000 and the cabinet room of the then New Democratic Party government.

The father of the fast ferries, Glen Clark, was gone from the premier's office. A new minister for ferries, Joy MacPhail, was trying to explain why the close to half a billion dollars Clark had spent on the project was mostly gone along with him.

"A failed experiment," she called the project. Her briefing supplied new premier Ujjal Dosanjh and his ministers with the ugly details.

The three aluminum-hulled catamaran ferries (one still under construction) would not and could not perform as advertised.

They weren't fast enough to significantly reduce travel times and thereby justify premium fares. But they were too expensive to operate as conventional vessels, particularly because their streamlined design precluded hauling more than a small number of buses or trucks.

Not suitable for the main routes. Not adaptable to others. Cramped quarters. Politically embarrassing. MacPhail left little doubt that the best course of action would be to get rid of them.

Two weeks later her colleagues took her advice. The fast ferries would be written off and sold. The New Democrats discounted the trio to a combined value of $120 million, hoping they could be sold "as is."

More wishful thinking.

"It is going to be difficult to sell these vessels," warned Alan Blunden, editor of the authoritative Fast Ferry International magazine. "They are very specialized pieces of kit and I don't know of any market that would really want them."

He rattled off the limitations. Custom-designed for B.C. ferry docks. Double-decker loading when one deck was the industry standard. Unable to navigate seas higher than 2.5 metres, which ruled out operations in Europe, the British Isles, the Mediterranean and most of the Asia-Pacific.

Renovations would be expensive. The market was glutted with alternatives. And a prospective buyer could build to suit for about $60 million.

Still the New Democrats soldiered on, getting some nibbles, but nothing like a take-it-to-the-bank deal that they were able to finalize before leaving office in the spring of 2001.

The Liberals inherited the process and had no more luck persuading anyone to take them "as is." Either they wanted them on an operate-now pay-later basis, or they wanted renovations. Or they were hesitant to get to the cold hard cash stage of the negotiations.

https://web.archive.org/web/20121110142 ... a7&k=71987

[alanjh595]

Clark was even successfully sued over this debakel.

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF BRITISH COLUMBIA

BETWEEN:
ROBERT WARD .. ..PLAINTIFF

AND:
GLEN CLARK .. .. DEFENDANT

(v) Summary
[86] In conclusion, the plaintiff shall have general damages in the amount of $150,000, plus pre-judgment interest as and from the date of publication.
[87] The plaintiff shall have his costs at Scale 3 as against the defendant.

http://www.courts.gov.bc.ca/jdb-txt/sc/ ... 0-0979.htm

[Cactusflower]

The fast ferry scandal can't hold a candle to the many BC Liberal scandals since 2001. I'll start with the ones just during Christy Clark's 'reign':
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/sarah-mill ... 58002.html

Then I'll do another post listing Campbell's (El Gordo) scandals.

[Cactusflower]

There are BC Ferries references here as well, but I think BC Rail, listed as #4 should have been #1. Also, unless I missed it, that murder/suicide in Kamloops should have made the list too.
http://www.pacificfreepress.com/2010/10 ... st-go.html

[The Green Barbarian]

The fast ferry scandal can't hold a candle to the many BC Liberal scandals since 2001. .

who cares? This thread is about Ferries. Not your obsession with lying about the BCLP to make the disgusting NDP look electable.

[The Green Barbarian]

that murder/suicide in Kamloops should have made the list too.

when it comes to throwing around dead bodies, no one holds a candle to BC NDP supporters.

[Cactusflower]

that murder/suicide in Kamloops should have made the list too.

when it comes to throwing around dead bodies, no one holds a candle to BC NDP supporters.

Thanks for keeping this alive, GB.

[alanjh595]

that murder/suicide in Kamloops should have made the list too.

when it comes to throwing around dead bodies, no one holds a candle to BC NDP supporters.

Thanks for keeping this alive, GB.

Says, the pot to the kettle.

[OldIslander]

.
Now the many years she's been to sea
She's seen the better times
She gives a groan of protest
As they cast away her lines
And the grumble of her engines
And the rust along her spine
Tells the Captain, she's too old to be sailin'

Gordon Lightfoot

[The Green Barbarian]

Thanks for keeping this alive, GB.

OK. Not sure what this means, but thanks for throwing dead bodies around the forum? Not sure what to say to that weird response.

[Cactusflower]

removed.