BC Ferries Corporation Attention: Ms. Joy MacPhail, Chair of the Board; Mr. Nicolas Jimenez, Chief Executive Officer 1321 Blanshard Street, Suite 500 Victoria, BC, V8W 0B7
Dear Ms. McPhail and Mr. Jimenez: I am writing to you as the Transportation critic of British Columbia’s Official Opposition to demand an urgent meeting with you. We wish to meet at the Legislature to discuss the inappropriate and troubling dismissal of the volunteers serving on the 13 citizens advisory committees who represent the coastal communities that depend on you for critical transportation services. On behalf of my caucus colleagues, Brennan Day, MLA for Courtenay-Comox and Anna Kindy, MLA for North Island and myself, I ask you to meet with us to outline your plan for the immediate reinstatement of these volunteers, as well as your plan to involve coastal communities more robustly in discussions relating to changes forthcoming to the services BC Ferries provides them. According to information on your corporate web site, there is no record of BC Ferries honouring its obligation to meet twice with the volunteers of these 13 communities in 2024. This is a startling display of negligence on your part that calls for immediate correction. Recent comments by Mr. Jimenz to the effect that a 30 per cent increase in fares will be necessary “simply to keep up and manage our operating and capital costs” have created tremendous and unnecessary anxiety in coastal communities, ranging from seniors who are wondering how to budget travel for medical appointments, to businesses whose supply chains depend on affordable transportation to serve their customers. To fire the volunteers tasked with providing you feedback and information from coastal communities, while scaremongering about 30 per cent fare increases, is a slap in the face to the people on the coast who depend on you. Please respond at your earliest opportunity. Yours sincerely,
Harman Bhangu, MLA, Langley-Abbotsford
Transportation critic of the Official Opposition