Here is my response to Transportation Minister Farnworth’s generic response to my last evidence-based appeal for reliable service on Route 21.
March 29, 2025
Dear Honourable Transportation Minister Farnworth:
This follows up your February 26, 2025 response to my multiple requests for government action involving the unreliable Baynes Sound Connector. Your response that you can only forward my appeals to CEO Jimenez confirms a continuing breakdown of governance that is strikingly similar to the conclusions drawn by the BC Auditor General in his 1999 A Review of the Fast Ferries: Governance and Risk Management.
The following similarities between BCF and government actions involving the fast ferries and the Baynes Sound Connector confirm a need for stronger governance:
Failure to thoroughly research feasibility: in 2013 BCF and the provincial government rushed to pursue building a cable ferry based on the expectation of saving tax dollars. Strong opposition from previous CEOs and government officials and from industry experts who predicted that a cable ferry could not do the job was ignored. BCF’s plans to stretch the cable ferry to accommodate increased need, indicate a continuing failure to thoroughly research feasibility.
Failure to create a risk management plan: rather than having a risk management plan in case the cable ferry experiment failed, BCF temporarily patches up unresolved mechanical issues and then gaslights both government and the public that the problems are being resolved. BCF’s intent to stretch the vessel, characterized by industry experts as preposterous, suggests BCF has not created a risk management plan for stretching.
Failure to thoroughly research operating costs: the cable ferry costs $5.9M annually to operate rather than the projected $230K that gained government approval for the vessel. This projected cost failed to include expenses for future capacity needs or anticipated and non-anticipated cable replacements. Although BCF remains secretive about the expenses for and frequency of cable replacement, experts speculate that a set of three that are shipped from abroad costs $900K and that a few years ago the cables had been replaced sixteen times. Failure to anticipate increased costs for stretching and for heavier cables calls for thorough research.
Failure to release information: currently there are 34 pending FOI requests that BCF and the government have not released. The released data for 2016- 2019 is confusing and so heavily redacted that the expenses for and the number of cable replacements are redacted. Withholding information is also indicated by the absence of evidence in annual cable ferry service reports to the Commissioner that contradicts the repeated claim that the vessel provides service on a par with conventional vessels. In violation of a Commissioner directive, BCF refused to explain for over a month last December why service was reduced on Route 21 or inform islanders when full service would resume.
Failure to submit accurate records: the released FOI data for 2016 – 2019 includes thirty pages of cancellations due to mechanical breakdowns, but in reports to the Commissioner BCF under-reports cancellations and repeats claims about service that is contradicted by the evidence. Although insiders claim that the cable ferry has the highest number of mechanical breakdowns and service reductions in the fleet, BCF recorded zero cancellations for Route 21 in the 2023 Annual Service Report to the Commissioner.
Failure of governance: the Commissioner and the Minister of Transportation publicly acknowledge their acceptance of BCF’s conflicting reports and claims. Responses to nine years of evidence-based complaints from islanders, our FAC, and from industry experts have generally been silence or repeating BCF marketing slogans and claiming a lack of authority to compel BCF to replace the cable ferry. Evidently, the Commissioner has the legal authority to issue directives like dramatically improving collaboration with the Ferry Advisory Committees, but lacks enforcement authority. Further, your support of BCF’s claim that a digital system will be more inclusive is not trusted by Islanders, the eighteen sacked FAC chairs who gave BCF a failing grade for meaningful engagement right before BCF sacked them, or those who reported that the February 2025 engagement events were disorganized and a waste of time.
Given this period of grave economic uncertainty, the staggering current and future expenses for transporting and replacing sets of steel cables from abroad each year, alone, should argue for improved governance and risk management planning. Transportation Minister Farnworth, I ask again, What can you do to improve governance so that Denman and Hornby islanders are assured safe and reliable ferry service on Route 21?
Respectfully,
Sharon Small.
