VOLCANO-ROMETER
This is how close the ferry-travelling public is to erupting... Oops!

SALIENT QUOTE #1:
"Everyone you talk to is seriously pissed off."

SALIENT QUOTE #3:
“Some BC Ferries employees have been approached with this and they stated that if there was a [citizens'] picket line, they, as union employees would not cross it.”

“News of integrity, by its very nature, is sure to rock the boat now and then.”
-Dan Rather

                       HORNBY ISLAND VISITORS: WELCOME TO “AREA K”
"We're afraid we're losing our lower-income residents, and those are the people that keep the community running. For Area K… mean individual earnings are only 47% of the BC level. This is significant because people aged 20-45 - the core of our work force - make up only 18% of Area K's population (while this age group makes up 34% of BC's population). Thus ferry fares can be seen as a particular stressor for a low-paid, depleted age group that is crucial to community viability.

“Of all the ferry-dependent communities for which 2006 census information is available, Hornby/Denman has the second lowest mean earnings - $11,699 compared with the provincial mean of $24,867. (Only Cortes is lower at $7,553). Hornby-Denman has the third lowest mean individual income - $18,438 compared with the provincial mean of $25,722. I see a crisis of affordability of ferry fares for our community. We pay the second highest fares for travelling the second shortest distance while having the second lowest earnings.” -Hornby FAC chair, Tony Law

Hornby has 2nd highest fares between the Vancouver Is./mainland and an island community
Hornby: $51.70
High: $56.90 (Cortes)
Median: $39.30 (Southern Gulf Islands)

Hornby travellers sail the second shortest distance
Hornby: 2.4 nautical miles
Median: 8 nautical miles (Bowen)
Low: 1.2 nautical miles (Denman)

Hornby/Denman visitors pay the most per nautical mile travelled:
Hornby/Denman: $21.54
Median: $11.85 (Bowen)
Low: $2.62 (Southern Gulf Islands)

Hornby/Denman has the highest % increase in prepaid fares since 2003
Hornby/Denman: +85.4%

Hornby/Denman has the third lowest mean incomes of ferry-dependent communities:
Hornby/Denman: $18,438
High: $32,206 (Bowen)
Median: $22,061 (Southern Gulf Islands)
Low: $12,917 (Cortes)


SALT WATER FERRY ROUND TRIPS TO ISLANDS
Denman Island, BC (10 mins) $24.00
Vashon Island, Wa (10 mins) $14.80 (US)
Bell Island, Nfld (10 mins) $6.25
Brier Island, NS (10 mins) $5.00
Deer Island, NB (20 mins) Free

Ferry Advisory Commitee member Andre Lemieux holds out the example of Howe Sound, pointing out that residents of Lions Bay, Squamish, Whistler, etc., are benefactors of billions of tax dollars being spent on the Sea to Sky Highway, while residents of the Sunshine Coast face ever increasing ferry fares, which are decimating coastal communities. [Gabriola Sounder Oct 22/07]

“This is the last time I visit Hornby!” - oft-repeated comment from island visitors during July 1st "ticket shock" weekend

Kevin Bell president of Mouat's Trading Co. on Saltspring Island is "very concerned" about ferry price increases between Vancouver Island and Saltspring that will rise 85% between 2004 and 2012. The whole world is dealing with increased fuel costs, Bell says. "But the whole world is not dealing with a provincial budget that's got a surplus in the billions of dollars, and they won't put in sufficient money to their ferry subsidy to allow the fares to keep pace with inflation." [Times Colonist June 19/08]

Ferry Advisory Commitee member Andre Lemieux holds out the example of Howe Sound, pointing out that residents of Lions Bay, Squamish, Whistler, etc., are benefactors of billions of tax dollars being spent on the Sea to Sky Highway, while residents of the Sunshine Coast face ever increasing ferry fares, which are decimating coastal communities. [Gabriola Sounder Oct 22/07]

Keep on rockin' the boat!

Rock The Boat Coalition welcomes a diversity of approaches toward achieving the goal of...
  SAVING OUR ISLANDS!

JULY 4th FERRY PROTESTS
By
William Thomas

Richard Stead, a retired mate and master on the Hornby and Denman runs and former executive member of the BC Ferries Union, described serious mismanagement of a ferry service he knew intimately after serving “pretty close to 27 years with BC Ferries.” Stead told his fellow Hornby Islanders, “The ferries are our Lions gate, our second narrows bridge. We deserve better than what we're getting.” (A follow-up interview with Richard Stead will follow as website funding becomes available.)

Based on his recent investigations inside BC Ferries, dentist Peter Walford highlighted the fuel surcharge scam, pointing out that the province is set to impose a whopping 20% fuel surcharge in August 2008 - even though it has locked-in fuel contracts at lower prices into next fall. With a single morning sailing paying the entire day's fuel costs on the Hornby and Denman runs, the surcharge rip-off is a desperate attempt by the Campbell government to show profitability and attract fresh bond issues needed to float the more than $1.3 billion debt largely incurred building three new “Super C” ferries. (A follow-up interview or an article by Peter Walford will follow as website funding becomes available.)

In between rousing performances by special guest musicians Peter Mason and The Jarz that included several renditions of Mason's BC Ferries song, Denman's Ron Sakolski also read his “Talkin' Ferry Blues” poem, in which the protagonist had to barter his wife to BC Ferries in order to get back across the bay.

Extensive media coverage included a long CBC TV segment that aired nationally, as well as CBC radio, Chek 6 TV and the Comox Valley Echo.

HORNBY - DENMAN
Speaking at the Hornby and Denman Rallies, Hornby rally organizer Michelle Easterly described how her accommodation business was down 40% because of the high and rising ferry fares. The Raging Grannies lampooned the Campbell government, and Denman organizer Sheila Nopper emphasize that the ferries are our sole road home.

Phil Vannini interrupted his vacation to speak at Buckley Bay. Riding ferries and talking to ferry goers throughout BC and around the planet, his extensive survey showed the BC government to be unique in its insistence on running this essential public service on a for-profit corporate model.

Vannini described how, when he reached into his pocket to pay for the fare in Finland, his guide asked him, 'What are you doing?'

When he asked how much the fare was, she looked at him as if he was crazy. “It's free,” she replied.

“But how can Finland afford that?” he pressed. “Your fuel costs are double what we pay in Canada?”

This time, she looked at him as if he had really lost his reason. “Man is meant to travel freely,” she said. “Don't you agree?”

I began my own remarks saying: “Let's be clear on the issues. This government's goal is to break the ferries union and offload so-called 'minor routes' to private operators.”

Detailing the 2003 sleigh-of-scam that transferred the publicly held BC ferries, lands and terminals to another arm of the provincial government called the BC Transit Authority, I rhetorically asked: “What happened? What we owned, we now lease. BC ferries have been contracted out - not privatized.”

Calling the hollowing out of the islands through constantly rising fares a kind of “ethnic cleansing,”
I further noted. “Hornby seems to be coming in second. We need two ferries to get home. We have the second lowest incomes in BC, the second shortest run and the second highest fares.

Warning protesters at both Buckley Bay and Hornby Island that I was going to have to use the “F-word,” I quoted Mussolini's definition of fascism as governments serving corporations by oppressing their constituents.

“The realities of the marketplace are not the realities of governance,” I pointed out. “The first is about taking, exploiting, squeezing profits from public services and resources. The second is about serving, bettering, enhancing the lives of constituents.”

Urging “non-cooperation” with detrimental government policies, I said, “We will not cooperate in our own oppression! If everything is going to be user pay, why are we paying taxes? Why do we have a government?”

Prolonged applause greeted these remarks, as well as some further notions on how we can reclaim our ferries. (Further coverage to follow as website funding becomes available.)

GABRIOLA
Jean McLaren reports:

“Well you got lots of media beforehand but we got none on Gabriola today. I was on CBC this morning but didn't hear it. And I hear Sheila Nopper and Bente Sutherland on Almanac at 12:30.

“We had a pretty good turnout considering no one did anything except me... The rest of the committee were a little sheepish when they turned up today and saw the people that I managed to turn out, one of which was Sheila Rogers from CBC who lives on the island.

“When I read out that press release that I sent you, she came over and said she loved it and it was brilliant. I nearly fell over. We had fun drumming and singing our songs, and holding our signs and umbrellas with slogans - and went over on the ferry and there was no media there but the ferry staff wouldn't let us pay to go back on the ferry imagine that!

“Don't know what the next step is, but we have a bit of a fight to stop them doing a bridge survey... we have already done it and they know it. We don't want a bridge that's for damn sure.

COMMENT: Hahn's bridge jape is a diversion. Don't waste time on it. Rock The Boat has several “next steps” in the planning stages to meet a growing islands-wide demand to do more than make speeches and carry placards. Stay tuned!

GALIANO
Galiano islanders skipped the rally. Instead, they spontaneously blockaded their “big ferry” when it attempted to depart less than fully loaded on the day's last sailing to Tsawwassen.

HAIDA GWAII
Haida Gwaii service cuts were announced during its July 4 rally. Reporting before the protest, Bente Sutherland wrote: “I live on the Queen Charlotte Islands, Sandspit to be precise, and the ferry is our only way to the hospital and other amenities, and we have the airport on our side, so there is a need from the other side as well. If our MLA's(Gary Coons) figures are correct, the fares for the MV Kwuna could increase by up to 200%. This is unacceptable in our struggling economy. Many people in Sandspit, unfortunately, have to commute to Queen Charlotte City, and even up to Masset on a daily basis to work, because of unemployment here. The ever increasing fares will force us to move to the bigger island or leave the islands all together.” (A report on protest action there will follow as website funding becomes available.)