Tag Archives: Brian Anderson

Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

BC Ferries has officially changed course, scaling down its climate ambitions to electrify its Island Class fleet and ability to achieve provincial emissions targets.

In 2021, the provincial ferry service got permission for the first phase of its Island Class Electrification Program (ICEP) — to convert the six Island Class diesel-electric hybrid ferries it has currently in operation to 100 per cent battery-electric operations by 2025.

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Transportation

Abuse, weapons threats to BC Ferries staff put public meetings on hold

October 3, 2023 Rochelle Baker 2 Comments

Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

B.C. Ferries abruptly cancelled all public community meetings and shifted local ferry committee meetings online Wednesday to protect employees citing a spike in aggression that includes gun threats and acts of vandalism.

Public notice about moving the Cortes Island and Quadra Island ferry advisory committee (FAC) meeting online, and the outright cancellation of a subsequent community town hall session happened within hours of the two events scheduled for mid-day and at 3:30 p.m. respectively.

It’s not entirely clear if it was a single incident or a compilation of incidents at different events that caused the cancellations, said Diana Mumford, chair of the Southern Sunshine Coast Ferry Advisory Committee.

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Transportation

Ferry Advisory Committee: Cortes and Quadra talk to BC Ferries

September 29, 2023 De Clarke

Cortes Island’s Ferry Advisory committee met (via Webex, a Zoom-like conferencing app) on the afternoon of Wednesday September 27th at 12:30pm. The meeting had originally been scheduled as a “town hall” style event at Mansons Hall; however, at the last minute BC Ferries announced that their FAC meetings would be held online, due to threats of violence from the public.

Though such threatening behaviour seemed unlikely on Cortes Island, BCF’s policy apparently applies across the board. The last-minute change of venue caused some confusion, but approximately thirty people joined the videoconference call on Wednesday (including BC Ferries staff and FAC members).

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