As BC Ferries looks to craft its new communications strategy, local and regional officials are clearly still smarting from the unceremonious dissolution of local ferry advisory committees (FACs).
And some are officially asking the ferry corporation to re-form them for Gulf Islands communities –– or, at a minimum, replace them with something substantively similar.
On a recommendation from its Electoral Areas Committee, the Capital Regional District (CRD) board voted Wednesday, March 12 to send a letter urging BC Ferries to reinstate the locally organized FACs “or similar engagement opportunities” for Salt Spring and the Southern Gulf Islands.
And while Salt Spring’s CRD director Gary Holman characterized the likelihood of those committees coming back exactly as they had been previously as “pretty slim,” CRD board members agreed there might be some middle ground between complete reinstatement of the three-decades-old FAC system and current engagement he said was sidelining those with real-world understanding of the ferry system.
“There may be other opportunities for that direct engagement, where we’re sitting in the same room,” said Holman, “not just elected officials, but other stakeholders in the community –– sharing information with senior BC Ferries staff, as opposed to talking with communications staff.”
Back in November, FAC members were taken by surprise during a planned conference call, where they expected to hear an update on a report on fleet-wide short-term priorities. Instead, they were told the 13 all-volunteer FACs would be “retired” by the end of April 2025.
“And that was the last that was heard from BC Ferries in respect to the ferry advisory committees,” said Southern Gulf Islands Electoral Area director Paul Brent. “So in terms of engagement with senior staff, so far, that really hasn’t happened.”
I understand [BC Ferries CEO] Nicolas Jimenez is coming to ASK Salt Spring soon, so that might be an opportunity to engage at that level. But so far, there’s only been engagement between [BC Ferries] communication staff and politicians.”
An email the ferry company sent to FAC members on the day it announced their dissolution in November indicated it had been in conversations with local government representatives to inform its decision, but representatives of Salt Spring or the Southern Gulf Islands were not among them.
“There was no heads-up,” said Holman. “We were just informed, ‘this is what’s happening’ and it did happen a few hours later. Some FAC members have been involved for over a decade; the way it was undertaken was quite disrespectful.”
Coincidentally, on the same day last week the CRD board voted to send its letter, the ferry corporation’s community relations team appeared before Islands Trust Council, a planned visit from BC Ferries’ Amy Bronee to update trustees on their process for developing its new engagement framework. That process started with its own six-week community engagement effort that began Feb. 4, Bronee said, in what was characterized as an “exciting period of transition.”
“It’s also a moment of opportunity, potential and possibility as well,” said Bronee, who presented alongside Zach Bulick, director of engagement at consultants Spur Communication, “to find new ways of staying connected with each other and with communities, to ensure that people who want their input to be considered in decision-making can do that in the ways that work best for them, whether that’s an online discussion, a survey, a ferry terminal tour, a workshop or a meeting like we’re having today.”
Bronee said the company and her team were doing “small group workshops and discussions” –– one was scheduled for trustees that evening, to be facilitated by Bulick –– and had hosted more than 20 “pop-up events” at terminals and aboard ferries, all while gathering online feedback on BC Ferries’ website.
Islands Trust Council members expressed worries about losing what Gabriola Island trustee Tobi Elliott called a “central point of contact” for diverse community members on smaller islands with limited internet connectivity –– and concerns that feedback being gathered through BC Ferries’ survey seemed guided toward a predetermined outcome.
Bronee said feedback on FACs had been “a mix,” with some communities saying they wanted to keep them and “other folks in those same communities telling us that the process didn’t work for them.”
But trustees, including several who had been on their islands’ FACs until November, took exception with the notion their islands didn’t support the longstanding FAC process.
“There is literally no question on [the survey] about, ‘do you want the FAC to continue as an engagement method in your community,’” said Elliott. “So there have been questions about whether the survey is sort of leading people to prefer online methods of communication.”
Denman Island trustee Sam Borthwick echoed the sentiment, lamenting what he said was BC Ferries’ reputation for “very subjective displays of data to support certain things.”
“It’s challenging to come into this process with a lot of enthusiasm and goodwill,” said Borthwick, “and see pretty much everything that has ever been asked be disregarded.”
A Feb. 20 pop-up event scheduled to take place at terminals serving Denman and Hornby islands was cancelled the day before, according to Bronee, after making a decision it was not safe for BC Ferries’ community relations team to participate.
“To get surprised with the cancellation of this process, when we thought we were hearing a totally different message,” said Borthwick. “This has put me in a difficult position representing that back to my community.”
“Are you going to still consider communities that really do want ferry advisory committees to remain in place?” asked Gabriola Island trustee Susan Yates.
“We still fully expect to continue to talk to a lot of the same people, right?” said Bronee. “We’ll hear from a lot of the same folks, will still collaborate on a lot of the same topics; it will just be a different model.”
“I would hope that whatever engagement model you come up with — and I have a totally open mind on this — I would hope you would also consider any of the communities that really do want their ferry advisory committees,” said Yates.
Bronee told trustees the “active engagement” phase of the project would end March 18, when the “feedback synthesis and reporting” phase would begin, which would include release of all raw data from the community surveys. The new engagement model will be launched in May, Bronee said.