‘Unacceptable’: B.C. transportation minister speaks out about BC Ferries’ long-weekend challenges

Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure Rob Fleming says what happened over the weekend at BC Ferries, with massive delays, cancellations, over-packed parking, and more online reservation issues, was “unacceptable.”

This comes after BC Ferries’ CEO Nicholas Jimenez suggested the challenges travelers experienced during the Canada Day long weekend is the new reality for peak travel on a system that does not have the depth to handle major stresses

“What we saw this weekend was unacceptable, and exacerbated by the loss of a major vessel on a major sailing route. Despite the limitations from Coastal Celebration being out of service and being delayed in completing its refit, I believe almost a quarter-million British Columbians and visitors to our province were moved between Thursday and yesterday, 71,000 vehicles,” he said during an unrelated press conference Tuesday.

“So, I think Mr. Jimenez is correct — every long weekend is always a challenge. But what made this really stressful for travelers who did not have reservations or could not make them because they were booked up.”

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Fleming adds that the major issue of a critical vessel out of commission at a critical time was a one-off.

“We do not want that to happen again, we do not expect that to happen again for B.C. Day weekend, or labour day weekend, because all of the refit activities for the year are complete, all 20 vessels have done their safety trials and had those improvements made,” he said.

Fleming adds that the new CEO of BC Ferries is working on improvements – including staffing – and says there have been a number of recent hires.

“But we know going forward it’s not just about vessels. In this case, it was, it has, been about crewing. This is a problem for…the transportation sector writ large,” he said.

The B.C. Ferries Tsawwassen Terminal on Tuesday July 4th, 2023. (CityNews Image)

Since the pandemic, increasing staffing levels has proven difficult.

“I am pleased that Mr. Jimenez and the executive team at BC Ferries have recently completed a phase of new hiring activities as the busiest in the company’s entire history.”

The corporation is also opening wage negotiations to set rates that will allow the company to retain staff they have and encourage others to come on board.

“I think this is the beginning of momentum around right sizing and correcting some of the labor shortages we’ve had to reduce disruptions, so we have to do better. I said that before the long weekend — and we will do better.”

He says the next long weekend, B.C. Day in August, will be a “proving time” for the corporation. It is one of the busiest weekends of the year for BC Ferries but Fleming says he expects it will not be a repeat of the Canada Day weekend where many travelers’ plans were rocked or entirely sunk.

With files from Emily Marsten and Mike Llyod