In the 1970s, a book of 10 passenger tickets cost two dollars. Rising 400% since 1997, Hornby ferry fares have doubled since 2003, when island routes were privatized under new rules stipulating that “users pay” for services never intended to make a profit.

"You can't privatize a lifeboat!” Spiderman added, pointing to the departing ferry. “That's our lifeline, our lifeblood. This is an essential service and they're turning it into an amusement ride to some ghost town.”

“It's getting virtually impossible to live here,” Denman resident Jon LeBaron told assembled print and television media. As attendance at Hornby elementary plummets toward school closure, and the island co-op reports a $60,000 loss from last year's drop in tourism, local artisans and their families are also being forcibly relocated off Hornby, where grandparents complain they can no longer afford to see their grandchildren.

Recent fare hikes have seen B.C. Ferries lose almost $8 million in the last quarter - nearly five-times more than during the same period the previous year. Coastal fares are going up again on April Fool's Day, and are expected to double by 2012, with additional fuel surcharges far in excess of actual costs already being added on top.

Restoring island ferry routes to the “Marine Highways” status still enjoyed by free inland ferries would see costs once again shared among all British Columbians. “After all, we islanders subsidize snowplowing, bridges and other highway services in the Interior,” rally organizer Michelle Easterly pointed out.

A Hornby accommodation owner reeling from a sharp visitor downturn, Easterly also noted that “day-trippers” intent on enjoying B.C.'s Provincial Parks have all but vanished from the islands. “Let's rock the boat,” she urged.

Chanting the international distress call, “Mayday, Mayday, Mayday,” Easterly is calling for a coordinated mass protest onboard all island ferries closest to the noon sailing on May Day - Thursday, May 1, 2008.

Borrowing its title from B.C. Ferries' imminent introduction of plastic fare cards, designed to eliminate the paper tickets islanders have long swapped among visiting family and friends, and for cooperative errands in town, the new, higher profile campaign is being called: “Experience The Inconvenience - Get Soaked On B.C. Ferries.”

“This is just the start,” Easterly vows, predicting the appearance of the “Fair Fare Ferry Fare Fairy” waving her wand of compassionate enlightenment on many routes soon.

“The volcano,” says Easterly, “is starting to gurgle.

Excerpts:

“Computers are trumping people,” says electric bike-riding Spiderman," after being called to intervene on March 27. “Decisions are being made by computers programmed to maximize the bottom line, while the needs of families and communities are being ignored. Whose interests are being served?”

The B.C. Provincial Government would have us believe that, while ridership plummets, ever-increasing ferry fares will generate higher income, even though a 1997 B.C. Ferries study found that on routes serving coastal and island communities, each 10% rise in fares decreases the number of users by another 3%,. Meanwhile the B.C. government has raised ferry fares by 400%.

The 5% ridership decline observed by Hornby ferry crews is hurting tourist-dependent island businesses, and it is forcing many locals to cut trips and stay home. Even worse, with families now moving permanently off the islands, communities like Hornby could lose their elementary schools and their rural souls if the fare-induced exodus continues. In this downward spiral, the fare hikes also saw BC Ferries lost almost $8 million in the last quarter - nearly five-times more than during the same period the previous year.

"Fares are just skyrocketing. The minor routes are feeling a huge crunch," says NDP ferry critic Gary Coons. With fares set to rise again on April Fools Day, Coons predicts ridership will keep going down - just as the islands' tourist season begins. "It's a marine highway,” Coons insists. “They have to treat it the same way as other transportation links.

Meanwhile vessels virtually identical to Hornby and Denman's Quinitsa and Kahloke continue to serve Interior communities for free, as “essential services” under the Department of Highways, Easterly points out.

Islanders want their marine highways back. This would see operating costs once again shared among all British Columbians, just as the costs of improvements on other provincial highways are shared. “After all, we islanders subsidize snowplowing, bridges and other highway services in the Interior,” Michelle Easterly points out. “The provincial government gets a lot of taxes from us, and we are getting privatized services back,” she adds, pointing to Hornby's dangerously potholed roads. “They stole ferries from Highways and made a private corporation. Privatize things, and money goes into some pockets. It isn't going into what the people need."

Press Release
Date: March 25, 2008

FERRY FARES PROTEST SPREADS TO HORNBY AND DENMAN ISLANDS

Spiderman Called To Intervene

"EXPERIENCE THE INCONVENIENCE" 
GET SOAKED ON BC FERRIES!

HIGHWAY ROBBERY

By Will Thomas

For Island Tides

“Spiderman was in the neighborhood, and heard there was a crime being committed,” announced the caped warrior, aka Will Thomas, who had ridden his electric recumbent bike to the March 27 Buckley Bay rally from his home on Hornby Island. “And it sounds like Highway Robbery!” he shouted to cheers and applause from 68 islanders and a Courtenay business owner, who turned out on just five day's notice to protest the latest fare hikes.

“We want our Marine Highway 22 back,” Thomas/Spiderman continued, referring to the former designation of coastal ferry routes subsidized under the Highways Ministry.

Read Spiderman's letter to the BC Minister of Transport, Kevin Falcon - urging the "Good Ferry".

Spiderman leads Denman ferry takeover with his electric bike_covert photo.

Kindly donate to our Fair Ferry Ferries camapign webpage.

Thank you.

While Spiderman is busy fighting crime elsewhere, his caped cohorot - the ebike-riding "Voltman" - is electrifying the debate.

MAY DAY... MAY DAY... MAY DAY...
THURSDAY MAY 1st

MAY DAY Rally! - Click Here

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