Each Sunday following last month鈥檚 provincial election, we鈥檝e published editorials on issues confronting the new government. Today鈥檚, on ferry operations, is the fifth and last.
Had the New Democratic Party won last month鈥檚 election, it鈥檚 probable major changes would have resulted at sa国际传媒 Ferries. The New Democrats promised a full-scale audit of the company, followed by a different long-term vision.
What the Liberals intend is unclear. Before the election, the minister responsible, Mary Polak, raised a hullaballoo over figures released by the sa国际传媒 Ferry commissioner. She was alarmed because the company lost $16 million in 2011-12, and could face greater shortfalls in the years ahead.
On that basis, a hurry-up 鈥減ublic consultation鈥� was held, and Polak announced that major service cuts would be required. The minister declined, however, to say which routes would be affected.
It鈥檚 time for some plain speaking. sa国际传媒 Ferries didn鈥檛 鈥渓ose鈥� money, any more than our roads, our schools or our hospitals lose money. The company laid out funds to provide an essential service.
Cutting routes is no solution. If there is a coastal community that won鈥檛 be hurt by withdrawing or reducing its ferry service, we haven鈥檛 heard of it.
And raising fares won鈥檛 work either. Rates have already increased between 50 and 80 per cent in the past decade, and the result, predictably, is constantly declining passenger traffic.
Businesses on Saltspring Island are closing because visitors can鈥檛 afford the ferry tariff. Holiday rentals on some of the other Gulf Islands are down for the same reason.
Perhaps this sounds like special pleading. Perhaps it is.
But why treat this side of the Strait of Georgia differently than the other? A modest extension of the SkyTrain service in Vancouver 鈥� the Evergreen Line 鈥� is slated to cost almost as much ($1.4 billion) as the entire investment in sa国际传媒 Ferries ($1.8 billion).
And transit users in Vancouver are charged just 40 per cent of services costs, while ferry passengers pay close to 70 per cent.
The reality is straightforward. None of the smaller ferry routes break even because the populations they serve are modest in size.
By the same token, none of the highways in remote inland areas of the province could ever be money-making propositions. But we don鈥檛 take that out on communities such as Fort St. John or Invermere.
The real problem is the illusion that sa国际传媒 Ferries is a private company pursuing corporate goals. It is nothing of the kind.
Its capital assets (terminals, office buildings and most of the ships) were purchased by the taxpayers. It receives an operating subsidy of $180 million a year from government. And a minister of the Crown is preparing to dictate service changes, now the election is safely over.
In reality, the company is a poodle and government holds its leash.
So what is to be done? If economies must be made, there are better places to look.
In 2011, sa国际传媒 Ferries paid its president and 12 vice-presidents a collective remuneration of $5.6 million. (The company says that figure was inflated due to one-time bonus payouts.)
The same extravagance continues down the line. The company鈥檚 comptroller receives $189,000. The comptroller general for the entire sa国际传媒 government gets $140,000.
The company鈥檚 vice-president of information technology makes $218,000. The head of information technology at the provincial health ministry (total budget 25 times as large) earns $113,000.
What鈥檚 needed is a complete re-examination of the company鈥檚 management philosophy, starting with these corporate costs. That might not resolve all of the financial difficulties, but it鈥檚 a lot better than shafting coastal communities again.
