Originally published April 28, 2024
BC Ferries intends to upgrade their Heriot Bay and Whaletown terminals to accommodate new, higher-capacity “Island Class” ferries with the potential for all-electric operation. The construction project, scheduled for 2026, will necessitate closure of these docks and ramps — a serious logistical problem for BCF and for island residents.
On April 27th, 2024, BC Ferries hosted a two-hour open house at Mansons Hall from 12:30 to 2:30 pm, asking for community feedback and suggestions on their early draft plan for this disruptive project. The event was attended by more than 50 Cortes residents over the two-hour period; for those who were unable to attend, the online comment period remains open until May 6th.
The community outreach event was led by Tamara Olson, one of BCF’s Community Relations Managers. She was joined by Project Manager Jeffrey Lee, Regional Terminal Manager Megan Caldwell, local Master (skipper) Sean Robertson, and several community relations coordinators and members of the terminal construction team.
The event followed the conventional format of a series of “stations” around the room, each one dedicated to a particular topic and furnished with a display board attended by a staff member. Residents circulated through the room, asking questions and making suggestions or comments at stations of interest to them. Feedback was preserved in the form of postit notes attached to the display boards.
The audio version of this story contains more interview material; selected excerpts are presented here.
Tamara Olson explained what BC Ferries is hoping to achieve by hosting this open house almost two years in advance of the terminal remodel.
We understand it’s going to be a tough couple months.
So what we really are here for today is… We’ve got an initial plan. This is our first go. This is kind of what we thought we can do during the berth closures. Now we want to know from you, from the community, who live here and have to use that essential service to get over back and forth, to go get your goods, your medical needs, all of those things: What can we do to help mitigate you through this time? How can we work together to make sure that we’ve got a plan?
We’re coming out early, right? We’re coming here in 2024 — 2026 is the berth closures — so we’re coming out here early to hear and to listen.
So what I think is going to be successful is just what you see around the room today. We’ve got about 75 people that plan to attend, and that’s a great number to just get some feedback… and to kind of poke holes in the plan a little bit, see what we’re missing. And just by getting that feedback, I think we’ve succeeded in our, in our initial engagement. Come listen, come hear what you say, and then — how can that help shape and develop these plans into what they’re going to be when we do have this work taking place?
BC Ferries’ draft plan involves two separate transports: a tug-drawn barge to carry commercial heavy vehicles (but no private vehicles) and a 30-passenger crew boat for individuals. Due to Transport Canada regulations, the barge is not approved for passenger transport and truck drivers would have to leave their trucks on board and then catch the crew boat. [Exceptions would be made for drivers who are required by law not to leave their trucks unattended, such as propane carriers.]
The draft plan proposes one barge round trip per day (to Cortes from Heriot Bay in the morning, with a long layover and then a return trip later in the day). The 30 passenger crew boat, in this version of the plan, would run on the existing ferry schedule and travel would be free.
BC Ferries staff were made aware of many specific adaptations and workarounds that Cortes residents and businesses have evolved over the years to make the most of our existing ferry services. Some of these arrangements involve handing-off of materials, improvised courier duties, and precise timing — all of which will be disrupted by the proposed interim service plan.
Jan Boas — longtime FAC member for Cortes and veteran of many years of interactions and negotiations with BC Ferries — declined to be interviewed at the event; but she stated briefly that there were numerous and significant issues to be worked out before the plan becomes practical. She has prepared a multi-page document listing these issues, and said she intends to bring it to the next FAC meeting.
Several people expressed concerns over the number of seniors with limited mobility living on Cortes, and asked how easy the crew boat would be for these people to board and deboard. Rob Chapman of Squirrel Cove said,
My only concern would be that they have somebody with the appropriate skills doing a detailed review of the requirements, who would understand the limitations of people who walk with a cane, require a wheel chair, that sort of thing. Because sometimes impediments that don’t seem like very much to non-handicapped people are quite a challenge. A hundred metres is not very far for most people, but for others it’s a real consideration, particularly on a dark or rainy day.
Concern was expressed over BC Ferries’ commitment to keeping the community fully informed, with strong requests for social media, email, and mailout updates as well as the company’s own web site.
Don Tennant, wharfinger for HACI, was worried about both connectivity and parking:
Okay, my concerns are with the barge not being able to take drivers of commercial vehicles, and being able to move them between where the water taxi lands (at Manson’s Landing) and the log dump [in Whaletown Bay, where the barge will land]. They’ve got to load the trucks onto the barge and then get onto the water taxi themselves. And then there’s limited parking [at Mansons Lagoon and the Heriot Bay government wharf]. And how safe is it to leave our cars in Heriot Bay? — we already know they have a vandalism and gas theft problem.
Janet Forsyth was worried about residents with a need for ongoing medical care:
I think there’ll be problems with people who have medical appointments, because many of them go to Campbell River, Courtenay, even Victoria for their medical care. Taking your children off the island — for swimming lessons or the doctor or dentist — if you have kids, it will be challenging.
Sandy Hoffman from the Cortes Clinic was mostly concerned about timing and delays:
Timing concerns me a bit. When you consider loading the foot passengers and then the barges, then there will be a delay with the truck drivers coming over to the passenger ferry… I could see the whole service running way slower. And sometimes we need to get to Campbell River hospital really quickly. Or — another consideration — Lane 8 delivers lab samples to the hospital, and that has to be done in a timely way. And pharmacy delivery, the timing is critical for our medications to come to the island, get picked up, be delivered to the clinic during the very short window that the pharmacy clerk is there, or Barb from Cove Pharmacy is there to help with dispensing. So timing is critical, and I could see things getting slow and hard to navigate.
The ambulance is another issue. I heard Quadra was looking into getting a special water taxi that was actually used for emergency services, designed specifically as an ambulance. But I don’t know if they’ve got any further with that. Something like that would be good, because really we can’t overburden the medical helicopters, they are already in such high demand all over the province.
Some residents were less than thrilled with the entire project of upgrading the ferries. Jill Milton from Whaletown said she wished there had been more consultation or deliberation before taking this step:
I feel like there should have been some community consultation, if the capacity for the ferry is going to be up by 75 percent. Because — well, look at our roads, the state of our roads, which are narrow, twisty, already full of potholes. So increasing traffic is going to really exacerbate that situation.
And the electrical infrastructure is pretty stretched. I understand. I don’t completely understand the technical side of it, but I know Bear is always measuring ours and saying, Oh, it’s almost down to the point where it makes the motors burn out. So to bring a ferry over that will be charging — if it’s an electric ferry — I’m not quite sure how that’s going to work. But also, the added tourist traffic and the added population that’s going to come about as a result — I think that the decision to bring that much bigger of a ferry should have been talked about in the context of community capacity.
Barry Miles had doubts about the seaworthiness of the Island Class ferries, after a history of cancelled sailings on the Quadra/Campbell River run.
This meeting is all about what we’ll do when there’s no ferry coming because they’re taking the docks apart. But my concern is, I don’t believe the Island Class boats are seaworthy enough to safely cross over to Heriot Bay. I don’t believe it will be safe.
Other residents were more at ease with the project and its timeline; some even said they would look forward to a few quiet weeks of reduced traffic. Local baker Barb Buffington was not perturbed:
Personally I do not plan to get my knickers in a twist. This plan is not going to be 100 percent probably for most people, but I think we just have to recognise that and do the best we can. [Asked whether she was concerned about supplies for her bakery business] No, I’m organised. I’ll get that in beforehand. I never travel to Campbell River between June and September, and it’s no big deal.
As the event wound down, Tamara Olson seemed pleased with the results.
I think it went great today. It was so nice to see everybody come out from the community. You know, I think we had over 60 people attend today’s event, and everyone came with a really positive and collaborative kind of approach to it.
And that’s what we were hoping for. We were hoping to be able to hear from the community, and receive their feedback, and listen to what they had to say to help us continue to develop these plans. I think we’re going away with some really, really great information — some some key bits that maybe we hadn’t originally thought about, that we can go back to now and say, “Okay, how can we help accommodate this?”
[Will there be any kind of summary or report released back to the community?]
Yeah, absolutely. Our plan is to release a report back to the community through the project page. So I encourage people to sign up and subscribe to it, because they’ll get updates that way as well. And they’ll only get updates about the project, nothing else [laughs]. So we’re going to have to wait for the next little while here; I would say by September, we’ll have a really good Next Steps [document], but we’ll report back to the community well before that.
BC Ferries staff commented both during and after the event on how pleasant and friendly they found the Cortes residents — and also on how much they enjoyed the catered food.
Interested readers should visit the feedback and discussion forum on BC Ferries’ web site to provide more information and suggestions before May 6th. Signing up for email updates is also recommended. Tamara Olson welcomes input from the community by email: tamara.olson@bcferries.com.
[All photographs by De Clarke except feature image courtesy of BC Ferries]