Ferry meeting
By Jim Phillipoff, Gabriola Sounder
Friday, December 5, 2003
The Gabriola Island Ferry Advisory Committee met last Friday, November 28th, 5 pm, at the WI Hall.
Committee members in attendance were RDN director Gail Lund, Fred Apstein, Steve Wohlleben, Capt. Ratch Wallace, Capt. Steve Clapton and Capt. Bill Dickie.
Capt. Trafford Taylor, executive VP/Operations said there would be a 4.4% tariff increase starting the first week in January. When pressed he said he could not be more specific at this time. Translation: there will be a ticket increase in the first week of January.
Taylor also said that essential service levels are being reduced from 16 round trips per day to 11 round trips per day, according to a Labour Relations ruling. The 72-hour notice remains in effect. Wohlleben and Taylor reported on the emergency service update. Basically, parties have agreed to a $66,000 annual fee (paid by the government) to cover emergency services. There are negotiations going on between BC Ferries and the Union, and there is the possibility of islanders paying about 20 cents more on tickets to fund the incremental costs of pagers.
The meeting was attended by eight members of the public including Senior Master Elgin McKillip, Ratepayers President Randy Young and long time island resident Veronica Hartman.
Young pressed BC Ferries officials to accept financial responsibility for widening the road near a problematic area in the ferry line-up. He also suggested that portable outhouses be made available at the far end of the line-up and recommended that live web cams be installed and connected to the BC Ferries web site (www.bcferries.com) so that residents could use this technology to plan their trips.
[At press time - 25¢ increase for single passenger tickets; 50¢ increase on single vehicle ticket. Ed.]
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