B.C.’s transportation minister reveals a heart of Stone

[Glacier]

B.C.’s transportation minister isn’t very impressed with a new report on the economic damage inflicted by skyrocketing ferry fares.

“Irresponsible,” Todd Stone called the report commissioned by the Union of B.C. Municipalities, which argued that plummeting ferry use has cost the province more than $2 billion in lost economic activity.

Stone, who thinks people stopped taking the ferry for reasons other than 75-per-cent fare hikes, outlined his complaints about the “unrealistic” report in a blistering letter to the UBCM last week.

Now the people who rely on the ferries — especially ferry-dependent business owners — say they’re not very impressed with the rookie minister.

“He should be ashamed of himself,” said Jim Abram, a Quadra Island municipal councillor who has led the battle against exorbitant fare hikes.

“That was one of the most disrespectful letters I have ever read from a minister of the crown. If he thinks the damage caused by massive ferry-fare increases is ‘unrealistic,’ then he should go talk to the people directly affected.”

That would be people like Cameron Pirie, whose family has operated a seafood-processing and distribution company on Quadra Island for 40 years.

Hikes in ferry fares of more than 30 per cent have not only inflated operating costs at Walcan Seafood, the company Pirie’s father started in 1974.

The bloated fares have also made it extremely expensive for people to live on Quadra or to commute to work from neighbouring Vancouver Island.

“It used to be we could put a want ad in the paper and be swamped with 100 applications,” Pirie said.

“Now we can’t get the workers we need. And the ones we do hire quickly realize how expensive the ferry is and quit. We have had to turn away work as a result.”

Some of the processing contracts the company has been forced to refuse include high-end orders from Japan for specialty items such as caviar.

“So that caviar gets ground up into fish fertilizer instead,” Pirie said.

“There are lost economics here, and it really concerns me that we’re unable to take the fullest advantage of our natural resources.”

While they’re using caviar for fertilizer on Quadra Island, business owners are also suffering ferry-fare damage over on Gabriola.

At around the same time fares started shooting through the roof, art-gallery owner Kathy Ramsey started noticing fewer and fewer visitors browsing through her store.

“It’s a constant squeeze and business is down,” said Ramsey, who has owned Gabriola Artworks for 18 years.

“People don’t come from Vancouver anymore. We don’t get the day-trippers from Nanaimo anymore. You rarely see young families visiting anymore. It’s just too expensive.”

She worries the costs will eventually drive away the vibrant community of artists — painters, potters, sculptors and jewelry-makers — that make the island such a cultural treasure.

“The fares are going up again next year and at some stage you reach a tipping point,” she said.

Just like on Quadra Island, she notes exploding ferry fares aren’t just a bottom-line cost-driver for business, but also squeeze the local labour market, especially for tourism.

“It’s difficult to find good employees, difficult for restaurants to hire waiters,” she said, describing an economic domino effect that hurts everyone and costs millions of dollars in lost business.

But Todd Stone knows better, of course.

The transportation minister did not mince words as he trashed the UBCM report that said sky-high ferry fares have damaged the economy.

In addition to “irresponsible” and “unrealistic,” he added “unsubstantiated and sensational” to describe the report’s findings.

After all, Stone argued, there are lots of other factors to explain an 11-per-cent drop in ferry ridership, such as the recession and the Canadian-U.S. exchange rate and stricter U.S. passport regulations.

Just one problem: the author of the report had already taken all of that into consideration.

“We controlled for external factors and that’s explained in the report,” said Peter Larose, an expert in business and travel research who has worked with the B.C. Chamber of Commerce, the Council of Tourism Associations and the Business Council of B.C. among other groups.

“I didn’t use any sneaky tricks to arrive at my conclusions,” he said. “We used the most common and best practices in travel and transportation industry analysis.

“When I got the report peer-reviewed by two people with PhDs, they told me ‘Peter, if anything, you are understating the impact.’”

Why is that? Larose said it’s because his report did not include indirect business costs from high ferry fares, like labour-market shortages that force companies to turn away business.

You know — like seafood companies grinding up fish eggs to make fertilizer instead of selling caviar to Japan.

“We know the damage high ferry fares and service cuts are causing,” said Ramsey, the art-gallery owner. “But if Todd Stone really wants to know for sure, he could roll the fares back and see what happens.”

But Stone made it clear he is not going to do that. The fares are going up again, business be damned.

[erinmore3775]

Policy Paper on Ferries

http://www.ubcm.ca/assets/Spotlight/UBCM_PolicyPaper_Book01_2014.pdf

For those of you who wish to read the policy paper, the above is the reference.

The decline in ferry ridership runs counter to the general increase in transportation trends (air, vehicular) over the same time period. With the decline in ferry ridership is a general business and housing start decline. The fare increases were far greater than what would be expected if they were tied to inflation or the salary increase guidelines for provincilal government employees set out in government policy

WHISTLER — B.C.’s transportation minister said the government has no plans to roll back ferry fares or to restore service to 2013 levels, despite a unanimous vote Wednesday at the Union of B.C. Municipalities to endorse a policy paper on the damaging impacts high fares are having on coastal communities and the economy.The analysis of B.C. Ferries, which was commissioned by the UBCM and is believed to be the first of its kind, concluded that rising fares have contributed to an estimated $2.3-billion loss in economic activity and an overall 11-per-cent drop in ridership within the last decade.In addition to the rollback, the paper further recommended that B.C. Ferries be recognized as an extension of the province’s highway system.But the only commitment Transportation Minister Todd Stone, who last week blasted the UBCM for releasing the report, offered Wednesday was to further meetings with leaders from coastal communities — the first of which is scheduled for sometime in November — although he did acknowledge that fare affordability is the No. 1 issue facing B.C. Ferries.“That is not going to happen,” Stone said when asked about the proposed rollbacks. “Our government has no plans, no intentions to roll back any service adjustments that were made. We have no plans to interfere with the independent process respecting rates — certainly not for the rate increase that the B.C. Ferry commissioner has set for next year.” (Next year’s rate increase will be 3.9 per cent).Instead, Stone said government will continue to push forward with the vision it announced for B.C. Ferries in February — which will include millions of dollars worth of efficiencies, alternative technologies and alternative fuel sources (LNG) — as a way of ensuring “fares don’t continue to escalate as they have” and are more in line with inflation. The plan will also include the “co-operation and collaboration” with coastal communities, he added.
http://www.theprovince.com/news/Transpo ... story.html
[url][/url]

I would suggest that the government and the Minister are out of touch and have no clear plan to solve the problem. I would suggest that all MLA's have their transportation allowances suspended for six months and forced only to use vehicular transportation and the ferry system to get back and forth to Victoria. Then they would have a better idea of the probllems faced by the general public using BC ferries.

[flamingfingers]

Perhaps the government could convene the Leg at Bella Bella (vehicle transport only) thus allowing them the 'wonderful opportunity' of enjoying the 9-hour ferry ride via MV Nimpkish that Todd Stone waxed so eloquently about here:

Apart from raves about the scenery and lavish praise for the friendly, helpful and efficient crew, the responses are overwhelmingly negative when it comes to the boat itself.

“Really small, no comfortable seats, basic food, just one toilet.”

“I was distressed … 10 hours with inadequate seating (six six-foot hard benches for 20 passengers) the constant noise of the engines … exhaust fumes and no way to escape. I spent most of the voyage on the car deck and was cold and exhausted upon arrival … Nowhere was I warned of the appalling lack of facilities. Shame on you …”

“The Nimpkish is a ridiculous old boat. The staff were wonderful and did their best … The free food was unhealthy garbage.”

But while world travellers were venting about being stuck on a “tub” for nine hours and contemplated “urinating over the side of a scow you call a ferry” because the toilet was inadequate, there was one reviewer who sounded positively enchanted by the whole experience.

That would be Transportation Minister Todd Stone, the man responsible for putting the Nimpkish on the route. He and his young family made the trip last month and to hear him tell it, the ride was a highlight.

Read the rest here:
http://www.timescolonist.com/opinion/co ... -1.1395094

[hobbyguy]

The issue with BC Ferries and economic impact is cut and dried.

BC Ferries was used by the NDP government of Glen Clark to buy votes and reward supporters. The additional routes/sailings were dealt out like candies. No regard to costs and long feasibility. Hundreds, yes hundreds, of sailings per week to small populations like Mayne Island, just to buy a few votes.

That created an artificial situation where these small populations were connected to the large population centers in a fashion that was artificial and not sustainable. Glen Clark may be a lot of things, but he isn't a dolt. He knew that, but went ahead in a desperate bid to maintain power.

Whenever you artificially impact an economic situation, unintended consequences follow. As an example, the mass sailings for Mayne Island created a situation where folks from the lower mainland could easily get to Mayne Island for quick getaways. That creates a market for B&Bs that otherwise wouldn't exist. So a few hundred thousands of economic activity was artificially created at a cost to the taxpayers writ large of millions and millions in operating costs. Reduce the sailings, and the B&Bs start to suffer, and quite naturally the owners start to scream.

Fast forward to today, and the consequences of the patently stupid decisions by the Glen Clark government come home to roost. The artificially created and unsustainable economic niches that were created by the Glen Clark vote buying are collapsing. Those niches never should have been there in the first place.

What the analysis and tally of those collapsing niches doesn't reveal, and it is much more difficult to assess, is the broader impact.

The savings from BC Ferries cuts will be spent somewhere within the government. Could be health care. Could be education. Could be R&D grants. We can't specifically track it. I'll take a shot in the dark and use health care.

$19 million per year in savings. Small towns like Princeton are struggling to keep doctors. Without doctors, small towns die. People don't want to live in towns without medical services - and peoples lives are at stake. So let's say we offer targeted bonus payments of say $60,000 per year to physicians that will contract to work in these communities. That $19 million in savings would help hire 316 doctors to work in small towns. Some of those small towns may be the same ones that are decrying the ferry cuts. What is that worth economically? Hard to pin down, but is pretty large. This US study puts that kind of situation at about $700 per capita in the affected towns. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1702512/

Lets take 1/2 of that. Say $350 per capita. Lets estimate the average size of the affected communities at 1,200. 316 x 350 x 1200 = $132.7 million in economic activity, and lives are saved to boot.

Sounds like a very good reallocation of funds to me.

Bear in mind that the primary BC ferry routes are close to self sustaining. It is the small routes that eat up the subsidy funding. That subsidy funding is currently $180 million. Many of these small usage routes are waaay over serviced.

As a familiar to me situation, I used to live on Haida Gwaii. At the time we had once per week ferry service, and it was minimalist service. Cars were loaded in the hold of a combination ferry/coastal freighter using a cargo net and a crane. This forum has a photo of the Northland Prince. http://ferriesbc.proboards.com/thread/8185 It was a wonderful, but slow, vessel to travel on. It did a loop service as far north as Alice Arm from Vancouver. I can not recall anyone complaining about the level of service.

Fast forward to today. The population of Haida Gwaii hasn't grown very much, if at all (less than 5,000). Haida Gwaii is serviced by 3.6 sailings per week, and on a direct to Prince Rupert basis, and on a first class ferry. BC Ferries is cutting that back to 2.6 sailings per week. Still 260% of the service, multiplied by the quality of service, than what was there when I was a resident. And the residents are kicking up a fuss. The utilization rate of the ferry service to Prince Rupert? Only 42.5%. Estimated utilization with the cuts? Only 58% - so still over serviced. The cost for each sailing? About $37,000.

Maybe the government will take the $1.9 million per year in savings and improve the hospital there (heavens knows it needs improvements)??

So the whole thing boils down to the artificiality of the service levels created by the Glen Clark government (and continued by Gordo) that was never about necessity, it was all about vote buying.