BC Ferries responds to cancellations and glitches over May long weekend, Bowen Island mayor demands change | 24CA News
After a busy lengthy weekend with ferry cancellations, delays and BC Ferries’ web site going offline, we’re now listening to straight from the CEO about what occurred.
Nicolas Jimenez was not put as much as communicate on the problems in the course of the lengthy weekend, however spoke with Global News on Tuesday.
He mentioned, regardless of some unlucky occasions, together with the cancellation of all Saturday evening sailings to and from Bowen Island, over 400,000 individuals traveled on ferries over the May lengthy weekend.
Still, Jimenez says the corporate might’ve performed a greater job at speaking with the general public when the web site went down on Monday.
“Could we do better? We can always do better. I think that is clear,” Jimenez admitted.
“So, we take every opportunity, like this one, to make sure we kind of build in better practices in the future to make sure when customers can’t reliably get into our systems, they at least know why.”
Jimenez says the crash got here from a difficulty within the firm’s Kamloops knowledge centre.
When pressed on the difficulty of crusing cancellations to and from Bowen Island, he mentioned it speaks to the bigger difficulty of staffing ranges.
“For mariners, one of their biggest issues is not technology, it’s not vessels, it’s people,” Jimenez defined.
“You know, coupled with that, we’re coming on the heels of a pandemic, which really disrupted labour markets.”
But that clarification is just not ok for the mayor of Bowen Island who spoke with Jimenez earlier within the day.
Mayor Andrew Leonard says what occurred over the lengthy weekend is only one instance of the deterioration of ferry service in his neighborhood.
“It feels certainly like we’re at a tipping point and something has to give,” Leonard instructed Global News.
“We need BC Ferries, we need the provincial government to come to the table with us and get actual solutions instead of just conversations of like, ‘oh, we hear you and change is coming.’ That’s the story that we’ve been hearing for the last number of years.”
While Leonard acknowledges the staffing shortfalls, he says BC Ferries is unfairly focusing on smaller routes for cancellations, when he believes these routes require fewer assets to take care of a constant schedule.
“BC Ferries sent out press releases that were boasting 100 additional sailings between the mainland and Vancouver Island. And yet it was the smallest boat, Bowen Island’s boat, the only one that experienced cancellations,” Leonard shared.
“And it affected us in a disproportionate way because of our smaller infrastructure, our smaller island and our inability to really absorb or cope with that kind of pressure when it’s left on us.”
Leonard says he has seen residents strained and even transfer away from Bowen Island on account of inconsistent sailings in his neighborhood.
“Ferry delays and ferry cancellations result in parents needing to get up before their kids are awake and coming back after their kids are asleep,” he defined.
“We had a pilot who had to move off island because he was not able to show up for shifts on time and had no reliability or security around transit and transportation.”
He provides, vacationers have been deeply affected by final weekend’s cancellations.
“When the ferries got canceled, we had hundreds and hundreds of tourists on an island of 4,200 people that has no hotels. So, we were scrambling to find accommodations for folks,” Leonard shared.
He says some straightforward short-term options might embrace assured loading for residents and ferry marshalling on the island to assist cope with visitors congestion.
But, he’s additionally apprehensive issues will solely worsen, with increasingly more individuals touring as we transfer into summer time and he anticipates extra cancellations.
“It’s really anxiety provoking. It cuts us off from the mainland. It has us feel like second class citizens,” Leonard expressed.
“We have tourists that are sleeping in their cars or scrambling to find accommodations overnight. It’s not a good experience for them and it creates a public safety issue on this side of the island.”
Leonard says he’ll consider the adjustments promised by BC Ferries when he sees them.
“So, we can come together, but this cannot be the new normal.”
© 2023 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
