Podunk Below the Masthead Thursday, July 16, 2009

General Forums General Chat
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The provincial Chamber of Commerce lends its support to the local Chamber in a bid to enhance ferry services along the coast, Port Ed gives a go ahead for development of its water line replacement project, Gary Coons has a few questions over the BC Rail situation and the Daily hits the lounge at the Gaming centre, some of the items of note in the Thursday edition of the paper.

PROVINCIAL CHAMBER SHOULDERS LOCAL FERRY ISSUES-- The local Chamber of Commerce is already harvesting the fruit of its recent hosting session for the provincial chamber, as the province wide organzation comes in with support for a Prince Rupert initiative to improve Ferry service along the coast. Seeking to have the province recognize the ferry service as an extension of the highways system, the local chamber is hopeful that with the support of the provincial body those initiatives will move forward…

(from  the blog a town called podunk, click on the link below to see the entire article atowncalledpodunk.blogspot.com/2 … 0528139760 )- 

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That’s nice that the provincial chamber of commerce has accepted the PR chamber’s policy recommendation that “… the provincial government … recognize BC Ferries as an extension of the BC public highway system …”

That idea has been around for decades, and best of luck to the chamber, but they really are swimming against the tide. The ferry system has shifted from a government service to a Crown corporation that acts like a private company, eg QC Islanders pay fares that cover about 80% of the cost of running ferries to and from the islands, in contrast to fare-paying users in the lower mainland who cover about a third of the cost of Skytrain. BC Ferries seems to be governed by a very different philosophy than the Alaska ferry system, which is run as a ‘marine highway’. Unfortunately.