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Passengers should expect ferry service disruptions due to crewing and weather issues: BC Ferries

Emelie Peacock
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Passengers should expect ferry service disruptions due to crewing and weather issues: BC Ferries

BC Ferries is warning customers of disruptions in ferry service over the next few months, with travel between the smaller islands hit hardest, as a host of issues affect the ability to fully staff vessels. 

In a Jan. 10 news release the company confirmed it is anticipating staffing issues and weather will result in unplanned disruptions, a week after ferry union president Eric McNeely said multiple structural issues were leading to low morale and potential burnout among workers. A spate of cold weather and crewing issues in late December and into January led to cancellations on routes across the ferry network, including Tsawwassen to the Southern Gulf Islands and to Swartz Bay, as well as between Fulford Harbour and Swartz Bay. 

Inter-island routes will be most affected, BC Ferries stated. A number of changes have already taken place on the Southern Gulf Islands to Swartz Bay and Tsawwassen routes between Jan. 17 and Feb. 3, including the cancellation of nearly all afternoon sailings from Long Harbour. 

“There is no single factor driving service interruptions,” BC Ferries stated. “It is a combination, including the Omicron variant’s potential to impact employee wellness, regular cold and flu season, severe winter storms, vaccination policies that have reduced crew availability and the global shortage of professional mariners making it difficult to hire replacement staff.”

COVID-19 and the rapidly spreading Omicron variant are causing staffing issues across Canadian industry. WestJet, which has 4,500 employees compared with BC Ferries’ 5,000, cut 15 per cent of scheduled flights into the end of January as active cases among staff increased by 35 per cent. How much the virus is impacting ferry workers is currently not known. 

Ferry staff have to be vaccinated according to both BC Ferries policy and Transport Canada regulations. All onboard workers must have their second dose by Jan. 24, followed by Feb. 28 for all other employees. BC Ferries is also deciding on the accommodation requests of around 100 to 200 employees on Jan. 15, for workers who’ve asked for exemptions from the vaccine mandate on medical, religious or human rights grounds. 

BC Ferries confirmed that only around one per cent of their circa 5,000 employees have indicated that they are not vaccinated. Employees who aren’t vaccinated and haven’t been granted an accommodation will be placed on leave without pay, a Nov. 5, 2021 union memo stated, a matter that the union and the ferry corporation don’t agree on.  

BC Ferries touched on the complexities involved in crewing a vessel, including the number of skilled mariners required onboard as per Transport Canada regulations, as well as where all of the crew members live and work. Vessels can’t sail without the appropriate amount of crew and even a few crew members unavailable can have a “significant impact on service if replacements are challenging to find.” 

To avoid cancelling sailings, BC Ferries stated they rely on staffing pools with reserve crew, as well as cross training and paying overtime for employees who cover shifts. 

In a Dec. 31 interview with the Driftwood, McNeely said low morale and potential for burnout among staff is “palpable.” Apart from the factors cited by BC Ferries, McNeely noted that structural issues including a dwindling backup staff pool, a lack of affordable housing, especially on the smaller islands where some ferries dock overnight, and crew working overtime to make ends meet.

“The whole system, in my opinion, right now is virtually running on overtime because there’s no staff so people are coming in on their days off trying to keep it working,” he said. 

When McNeely’s comments were shared on a Salt Spring residents’ transportation Facebook group, a half dozen people pointed to BC Ferries’ on-call hiring policy as a main issue. McNeely also noted that having employees on call seven days a week without a set schedule prevents workers from planning their lives, with some even delaying having a family “because of the instability of the on-call life.” 

Schools to monitor attendance as a “proxy” for COVID-19 spread as students return to classrooms Monday

Emelie Peacock
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Schools to monitor attendance as a “proxy” for COVID-19 spread as students return to classrooms Monday

As Gulf Islands students return to classrooms Monday, the school district will shift from contact tracing to monitoring attendance to see if COVID-19 is spreading in a school. 

They will also be preparing safety plans and contingency plans should they need to shut schools down due to lack of staff.

Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry reiterated in a news conference Friday that schools are essential and are the best place for students to be. Yet as the Omicron variant spreads in communities, including 39 cases over the past week on the Gulf Islands, Minister of Education Jennifer Whiteside reminded people that schools are not immune.

“Schools are a reflection of what happens in the community,” she said. “We know that students and staff in our schools will be affected by this latest variant and that’s why we want to ensure health and safety measures are in place so children and youth can learn in school to the best extent possible.” 

In terms of how families will be notified when COVID-19 becomes an issue in schools, Whiteside explained that a system has been devised with public health that will look “very different” from what has been in place previously. 

“As public health has advised us, individual case management and contact tracing is no longer a helpful tool for us in tracking cases in schools,” she said, owing to the shorter incubation period of the Omicron variant. A “proxy” is instead needed to understand what’s happening with transmission in schools.

Individual schools will be monitoring attendance and if it dips below “typical rates for this time of year,” it will trigger a response from public health that could include investigation or rapid antigen tests to better understand what’s happening Whiteside explained. 

Individual schools in the Gulf Islands School District (SD64) will be monitoring attendance levels and should they drop by 10 per cent below historically normal levels then Island Health will be informed. Boe Beardsmore, director of instruction and learning services, said this was a previous practice used to monitor spread of things like flu infections. 

“Even before, for any type of illness or infection, when we have a 10 per cent absence in a school, that’s 10 per cent more than historical normal, then we report that to public health and then they provide us with any guidance on what we need to do,” she said. 

After a student tested positive for COVID-19 at Fulford Elementary School in October 2021, parents of SD64 students criticized what they saw as a slow and sometimes absent notification process by Island Health. Parents of students in close contact with the student who had COVID-19 were informed a few days after the infection was confirmed and one week after the exposure happened a notice was posted on a school exposure website. While notices were previously sent home to families, this was not possible for the October exposure due to privacy guidelines, superintendent Scott Benwell said at the time.

The Driftwood asked Island Health for details about how families will be informed should the 10 per cent below normal absence levels happen. A staff person confirmed via email that the health authority “will work to understand the updated process and will communicate this information to school districts and through our website etc. once we have clarity on how the process will be implemented at a local level.” 

Gulf Islands Teachers’ Association president Ian Mitchell said there was a “vagueness” or a “lack of precision” from the province in their briefing today, both about functional closures and how families will be notified of the virus spreading in schools. 

School districts have been preparing safety and contingency plans, with an overall focus on protecting students and education workers, Whiteside said. Safety measures will include the provision of three-layer disposable masks and the continued mask mandate for all students, staff and visitors, as well as crowd reduction measures, including staggered break times, assemblies and staff meetings going virtual and restricting visitors. 

SD64 has an overall COVID-19 safety plan in place, Beardsmore confirmed, as well as individual plans for each school. Since the start of the pandemic, the school district has also replaced all air filters in the district with MERV 13 filters and are collecting daily carbon dioxide data from the schools. The weather on the Gulf Islands helps out as well, Beardsmore added, as schools can have continuous air circulation thanks to open doors or windows even in winter months. 

Henry and Whiteside acknowledged the anxiety families, staff and children may be experiencing ahead of Monday, yet pointed to the high rates of immunization, including boosters among school staff, with upwards of 95 per cent of teachers vaccinated. Whiteside strongly urged families whose children are aged 5 to 11 to get them vaccinated.

The advice across the board for British Columbians is not to get tested and instead stay home for five days if they have mild symptoms. Whether to send their kids to school if they have mild symptoms, or if other household members likely have COVID-19, will be up to families to decide, Henry said. 

“Particularly children with mild illness and less likely to have symptoms, yes, we are still allowing children to go to school in those settings and to monitor very carefully,” she said. “If there’s really sick people in the house, it may be up to families to make those decisions about whether they want to keep children home in those scenarios.”

“It is critical that every single day before coming to school, students complete a daily health check, staff as well, and staying home if they have any symptoms,” Whiteside added.

Families can use the self assessment tool at bc.thrive.health to do so. 

As the province awaits the delivery of rapid antigen tests, Henry said supporting the school system with outbreak management is one priority area for these tests. Beardsmore said these tests are expected in the coming weeks and the district will know then how they’ll be used in schools. For the time being, the daily health check and staying home if sick are the first line of defence.

Parents are also encouraged to report the results of rapid tests, Whiteside said, as well as contact the school if their child is staying home because of illness. 

Plans have also been prepared to ensure learning continues should a shift to home-based learning be needed, Whiteside said. SD64 is planning for how to ensure learning isn’t interrupted in case of a functional closure, meaning the need to close a school should there be inadequate staff to provide the level of teaching, supervision or support to ensure health and safety of students, Beardsmore explained. In this case, school districts could shift to fully remote learning and schools have been planning for how to deal with potential interruptions in learning. 

While he gave kudos to the school district for continuously trying to attract staff, Mitchell said the cost of real estate and the “deplorable” rental situation make it hard to recruit and have a robust teachers’ on-call list.  

The concern with blended or online learning, Mitchell said, is that how it will look isn’t spelled out yet and with such a shift, the workload for teachers could also go up. 

“We don’t know what that’s going to look like when the doors open on Monday, how many missing kids there’s going to be and teachers that’s going to be and it’ll unfold as we go,” he said.

Lay Counselling and Peer Support Explored at Mental Health Summits

Emelie Peacock
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Lay Counselling and Peer Support Explored at Mental Health Summits

A network that aims to co-create a community where everyone belongs will hold summits starting this month around peer support, lay counselling and how these can contribute to mental wellness on Salt Spring Island.

The Salt Spring Health Advancement Network (SSHAN) has been working behind the scenes for the past year on this initiative, which will bring together service providers, people who access services, people who are marginalized and other community members. The first two summits, set for Jan. 11 and 18, will explore peer support and how it could help fill mental health service gaps.

At least half of the people who need such services on Salt Spring either don’t get access to them or are on waitlists that are a year long at this point, said William MacPherson, who has lived experience of mental illness and addiction as a young man and is a support worker, public speaker and coordinator of the upcoming summits. This need was outlined in a 2019 community health needs assessment put together by the Salt Spring Community Health Society, which also found that people needing services for chronic illness, disabilities, substance use or those experiencing violence could only access these services 50 per cent of the time.

All statistics are pre-pandemic, and since then things have become more acute, said David Norget, who is an on-call emergency mental health clinician at the hospital, a registered clinical counsellor and co-chair of the SSHAN.

While Island Health provides counselling, case management and psychiatry on the island, Lady Minto Hospital does frontline mental health work and the school district provides services to children and youth. Salt Spring Island Community Services and other non-profits work to fill the gaps. Waitlists are long and the system is challenging to navigate, said MacPherson.

The summits are a part of addressing these long wait times and gaps, as well as in a broader way shifting mental health from being a medical issue to a community issue. “There’s . . . growing recognition that not all mental health problems can be solved within the narrow confines of the medical model,” MacPherson said. “So there’s an interest in broadening our capacity, using existing community members who have their own skills and strengths.”

Mental health problems, oftentimes, are community-based problems, he added.

“They’re how we relate to ourselves and each other in community, and we’ve made a mistake in thinking that the medical system should be the only organizations responsible for that.”

Sherman Sherwood has alternated between living across Canada and on Salt Spring for the past 15 to 20 years and experienced mental trauma, physical issues and stigma. With a lot of experience providing peer support, Sherwood said he’s seen what a “magical formula” it can be.

“In the communities that I would land in, caring for the community helped me understand further what I was going through . . . it seemed that the more I cared for my community, the more clarity of my own issues was coming to light,” he said.

Mutual support is a much more empowering model, said MacPherson, compared to being a passive receiver of services, which can be undermining and triggering.

Lay counselling, Norget explained, is more formalized with one-on-one sessions that are more accessible than regular counselling, as finances are not a barrier. Peer support is broad, he said. It’s about creating connections, sparking ideas and has a strong social justice component.

AmanDa Paska, who said she has challenges with mental wellness and has also spent time as a volunteer in Victoria’s tent city, said mentorship was a critical part of her path and she hopes the summit does the same in allowing people to network and connect to community.

A big part of mentorship for Paska was being able to learn and having someone taking the time to work with her, as well as compensation for her time or some form of exchange and support. Empathy, belonging and a non-judgemental space were also crucial, she added.

While she was at tent city, she would see some people coming by either offering support or driving by yelling “get a job.” People who don’t understand what someone might be struggling with may have an expectation that “you can just give a job to somebody with mental health issues and . . . fix everything,” she said. “But it goes way deeper than that.”

One of the SSHAN’s goals is to eliminate isolation and siloing between organizations and community members, and to create a space in local organizations where volunteers can participate and support community members, MacPherson said.

“We as helpers, or maybe more privileged community members, we want to fix this thing. But we don’t always talk to the people to ask them what they’re wanting,” Norget said. A critical part of SSHAN’s work and the summits is involving in a meaningful way people with lived experience and marginalized voices.

The community health society has trained over 60 people in mental health first aid, which Norget sees as indicating a clear interest in the topic on Salt Spring.

The first summits on Tuesday, Jan. 11 from 2 to 5 p.m. and Tuesday, Jan. 18 from 3 to 6 p.m. will focus on peer support. In February, the focus is on lay counselling, and in March it will be about action coming out of the previous summits. Meetings will take place online, via the video- conferencing system Zoom, and in person at the library subject to the unfolding pandemic situation.

To take part, email Charleen Rolston at charleen.rolston@viha.ca or MacPherson at willieonsaltspring@gmail.com. 

Power outages, essential travel only after heavy snow on salt spring

Emelie Peacock
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Power outages, essential travel only after heavy snow on salt spring

Salt Spring Island’s emergency program is warning people to undertake essential travel only as the island remains under a winter storm warning after heavy snow Wednesday night. 

A 10:45 a.m. Thursday update from the emergency program confirmed that travel on roads and ferries may be difficult today, and informed islanders to be ready for further power outages ahead. 

“As the temperature climbs and we start to get rain this will increase the weight loading on the trees of the snow and will start breaking branches and trees which may compromise Hydro lines further and result in further power outages today and this evening,” the update stated. 

The emergency program advised residents should only undertake essential travel, although transit is still running on the main routes and Fulford-Ganges Road is “clear but slushy in spots.” The update stated side roads are beginning to be cleared but this will take time. 

BC Hydro is reporting outages at nine locations on Salt Spring Island as of noon Thursday, including 71 customers along North Beach and Walkers Hook roads, 41 along Musgrave Road and a number of smaller outages.

A large swathe of the eastern part of Salt Spring and most of North Pender Island was without power this morning, affecting 2,819 customers, with power back on before noon.

Ferry service was affected by the heavy snowfall overnight, including the Skeena Queen which services the Fulford Harbour to Swartz Bay route having its 7 a.m. sailing from Swartz Bay cancelled. Sailings between 6 and 7:40 a.m. between Crofton and Vesuvius Bay were cancelled due to heavy snow. The Quinitsa resumed its 8:20 a.m. sailing from Vesuvius Bay. 

The 7 a.m. sailing from Tsawwassen to Swartz Bay was cancelled, and the Swartz Bay to Southern Gulf Islands route serviced by the Mayne Queen was 23 minutes behind schedule this morning due to delays caused partly by heavy snow.

For ferry updates, see @BCFerries on Twitter, the current conditions page or call 1-888-223-3779.

Businesses and organizations also closed for the day Thursday, including the Salt Spring Island Public Library and post office.

An Environment Canada weather warning for the Southern Gulf Islands Wednesday morning warned that the heavy snowfall from overnight will mix with rain or patchy freezing rain. Freezing rain is more of a risk throughout the morning changing to rain by early afternoon. The warning states roads could be icy and slippery and visibility could be impacted. 

Very little additional snowfall is expected after the 10 to 20 centimetres overnight, Environment Canada stated, with trace amounts to 2 centimetres forecast for Thursday.

“Be prepared, please check on your neighbours,” the emergency program update stated. “And stay home and stay safe until this passes in a few days.”

GISS grad Jacob Maxwell leads award-winning engineering team

Emelie Peacock
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GISS grad Jacob Maxwell leads award-winning engineering team

Jacob Maxwell, a 2008 graduate of Gulf Islands Secondary School (GISS), has led a team of Alberta engineering technologists in the design of an award-winning off-grid wireless internet system for remote communities.

The student team worked on the design last year and in December it was named Capstone of the Year by the Association of Science and Engineering Technology Professionals of Alberta (ASET). The design combines SpaceX internet technology with solar power to provide affordable wireless internet to remote and off-grid communities, a concept which will be tested in Canada by a charity sponsoring the project. 

Maxwell said he experienced the development of internet technology firsthand growing up on Salt Spring. From his first 56K dial-up modem in Grade 7, to DSL and then broadband internet when he went to university in Vancouver, the issue of improving internet access is a personal one for him. 

“I was really lucky to work on this capstone project where we identified this need, this lack of accessibility for many places in the world that are still going through that same transition that Salt Spring experienced when I was growing up,” he said. 

As an alternative energy technology student at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT), Maxwell worked alongside former classmates Natasha Bergstrom-Baier and Abdallah Farah and former wireless systems engineering technology students Steven Sager and Spencer Tracy. 

The team first looked at a system for a single household, which wasn’t feasible with their aim of keeping it affordable. They then began looking at a distributed approach using the broadband system being developed by Elon Musk’s company SpaceX.  

The team tackled what many students had tried to do before, said ASET’s CEO Barry Cavanaugh, yet there was always something they couldn’t master. With the use of SpaceX’s Starlink system, the missing link was found.

“And using solar power to power it makes it really attractive . . . they can afford to do it that way in all kinds of remote communities,” Cavanaugh said, adding that it lines up with the Government of Canada’s stated aim to supply rural and remote communities with high speed internet.

The Starlink user terminal is attached to a wireless internet service provider device, which could be run by a local business or by the community who would pay the subscription fee to Starlink. 

Beta testing showed a single Starlink unit could provide 70 to 120 megabits per second, which is “fantastic, that’s broadband speed,” Maxwell said. The team found the unit can provide wireless internet in a 600-metre diameter under ideal conditions, a 300-metre radius providing up to 100 users within that range internet at a speed of around one megabit per second. 

To power the off-grid system, the team designed solar modules with battery energy storage. 

“Even though it’s basic internet service by our standards, it’s still a tremendous improvement for people who are off grid and never had internet before,” Maxwell said.

So many benefits stem from being able to access the internet, he added, from entertainment, social connection, income potential, and access to education and health care. 

Internet can be extremely expensive for remote communities because of the infrastructure needed, including landlines, fibre optic and transmission cables, as well as the cost of maintenance. In comparison, the cost of this system is between $7,000 to $10,000 before installation costs. 

Costs could vary depending on how much sunlight the community gets. The energy consumption of the whole system is around 120 watts, which is not a lot of solar, Maxwell said, but more than that needs to be stored for use overnight or in cloudy conditions.

“The cost of the solar and battery components are directly proportional to . . . the longest night of the year,” he explained.

The concept is feasible around the Edmonton latitude of Canada, yet pushing further north towards the Arctic circle means they’d need to look at hybridizing the system with other renewable sources like wind or biomass. 

It could work in places like Salt Spring, or anywhere it’s too expensive to build out a utility grid, because Starlink is a global service. 

The team completed the project a year ago when it wasn’t possible to test the Starlink terminal in Edmonton, so a lot of their work was done as a computational assessment of what would be possible. The project sponsor is planning to test the concept in Canada before they consider integrating the team’s findings into their global charity operations. For the time being, Maxwell said, he couldn’t specify the name of the charity or more about their plans.

The team is interested in sharing their research with non-profits or governments who are interested in similar projects with a humanitarian mandate.

“This should be something that enables people to connect to the wider world and educate themselves and improve their standard of living,” he said. “It shouldn’t be a means to an end to extract currency from a location.”

“It was something that I picked up by osmosis just from living on Salt Spring for as long as I did and seeing all the community efforts there that appreciate and preserve and conserve nature,” Maxwell said of his career path so far. 

Maxwell is currently in his last months of training as a wind turbine technician and electrician at Lethbridge College. He aims to take his knowledge and work on offshore wind installations in remote regions. 

“Energy independence is an important thing for isolated locations,” he said, adding he’d like to work on hybridized systems which combine wind with solar power to install resilient power grids. He was inspired to go in this direction after visiting Cuba and seeing the island powered by diesel stations. 

In the future “once my body is worn down and things don’t bend like they used to after time in the field,” Maxwell said he’d like to return to GISS to teach renewable energy technologies if such a position exists then.

Jacob Maxwell.

Up to 20 centimetres of snow On Its Way

Emelie Peacock
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Up to 20 centimetres of snow On Its Way

From 10 to 20 centimetres of snow is forecast to fall on Salt Spring and the Southern Gulf Islands Wednesday into Thursday. 

A winter storm warning is in effect for the Southern Gulf Islands, as well as Victoria, the Malahat Highway and other parts of Vancouver Island and B.C.’s south coast. Environment Canada predicts around 10 to 20 centimetres of snow will accumulate in these areas from Wednesday midday until Thursday morning. 

Environment Canada warns that the rapid accumulation of snow could make travel hazardous with reduced visibility as well as icy and slippery roads, parking lots and walking areas. 

Salt Spring and the Southern Gulf Islands have been receiving some real winter weather for the past week, beginning with minus 10 to minus 20 degrees Celsius windchill values starting on Dec. 27 as well as snowfall on the final days of 2021. 

Salt Spring Fire Rescue fought a house fire amidst the heavy snowfall around 2 a.m. on Dec. 30, with extensive damage to the Swanson Road home but no injuries to residents or firefighters. 

The cold also affected BC Ferries sailings, with the Fulford-Swartz Bay route experiencing cancellations due to staff issues on Dec. 29 and late Vesuvius Bay-Crofton morning sailings Dec. 30 and 31 as cold affected the Quinitsa’s rescue boat. Strong winds on Jan. 2 led BC Ferries to cancel afternoon sailings between Long Harbour and Tsawwassen, as well as between Tsawwassen and Swartz Bay.  

Cold weather was also the likely culprit behind a mechanical failure of Ganges Wastewater Treatment Plant pipes, which led to a sewage leak into Ganges Creek and out into Ganges Harbour Jan. 2. 

BC Ferries staffing crunch impacts felt

Emelie Peacock
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BC Ferries staffing crunch impacts felt

Last week’s cold weather exposed multiple structural issues affecting BC Ferries crew, says ferry union president Eric McNeely, after Salt Spring and mainland to Vancouver Island crossings were cancelled.

The last two round-trip sailings between Fulford Harbour and Swartz Bay were cancelled on Dec. 29 due to a “crewing issue.” The specific reason for the issue wasn’t provided by BC Ferries, although cancellations of the Tsawwassen to Swartz Bay route Dec. 30 were due to a weather-related staffing issue. Cold weather and snowfall caused equipment problems and delays across BC Ferries’ network, including two late starts of the Quinitsa on Dec. 30 and 31 due to freezing temperatures affecting the ship’s rescue boat.

“It’s all compounding,” said McNeely, who heads up the BC Ferry and Marine Workers’ Union. “This flu season, COVID . . . and just the weather have really highlighted some structural issues within the ferry system as far as staffing goes,” he said. 

“We require a specific number of crew members on board the vessel to ensure the safety of our passengers in the unlikely event of an emergency and to comply with Transport Canada regulations,” communications manager Astrid Chang stated by email about the cancelled sailings.

The last-minute notice left many travellers stranded either on Salt Spring or in the Victoria area. For the last two Fulford sailings on Dec. 29, BC Ferries was unable to secure a water taxi service for those affected, which is something it has done in the past.

BC Ferries stated that customers with bookings whose sailings were cancelled last week would have reservation fees refunded, with travel instead going into a standby basis. 

Chang reminded anyone who needs help with their ferry travel to speak with BC Ferries.

“Our staff are ready to help, and requests for compensation are reviewed on a case by case basis,” she stated.  

The ferry service used to have a healthy backup staff pool as well as a good number of casual employees, whereas now, McNeely said, staffing levels are the lowest he has ever seen. While staffing of the core ship’s crew, engineers, deck officers and deckhands are more stable, he said, there are a lot fewer people to backfill for them, as well as for terminal and catering crew positions. What this means onboard the vessel is fewer cafeteria staff and difficulties replacing crew members who get sick.

How much of the BC Ferries staffing challenges are due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the rapid spread of the Omicron variant is not clear.

“What we’re seeing is low crew levels, increased seasonal flus and expecting to see a marked increase in COVID cases across the fleet in the near future,” McNeely said. 

CHEK news reported Dec. 24 to 26 sailings on the Northern Sea Wolf, which services B.C.’s central coast, were cancelled after crew contracted COVID-19. While the number of crew affected was not confirmed by BC Ferries, CHEK cited five people had contracted the virus as of the Dec. 28 publication of the article. 

Other large Canadian transportation companies are being affected. On Dec. 30, WestJet told CBC they are seeing a 35 per cent increase in active cases among staff and will be forced to cut 15 per cent of scheduled flights until the end of January as a result. 

Ferries’ personnel have to be vaccinated, with Transport Canada mandating vaccination of workers onboard vessels and a BC Ferries policy regulating on-shore workers. While the Nov. 15 mandate for shipboard staff to have their first vaccine dose has had some negative impact on worker availability, McNeely said, upcoming vaccine deadlines in the new year may lead to even more challenges. 

McNeely estimates that between 100 and 200 employees have asked for accommodations with the vaccine mandate for religious, medical or other reasons protected under human rights legislation, with decisions on these requests to come this month. This will happen Jan. 6 for shipboard workers and Jan. 15 for all other BC Ferries staff. By Jan. 24, everyone working onboard ferries needs to have their second dose, i.e. be fully vaccinated, and the same requirement comes in Feb. 28 for those working on land. 

For some people, it’s not a simple “do it and get over it” approach to vaccination, McNeely said. “The people who are scared of the vaccine are entitled to those emotions just as the people who are scared of COVID are entitled to those. It’s a matter of trying to address those concerns, provide information to both parties where possible and try and ensure that the workplaces are as safe as possible.” 

The Driftwood asked BC Ferries for comment on the host of staffing issues raised by McNeely. A response was provided only about vaccine accommodations, with Chang stating that of BC Ferries’ around 5,000 employees, around one per cent have indicated they are unvaccinated.

“A small number of employees are seeking accommodations and the review of these cases is currently being completed,” she stated. “No employees have been terminated for actions related to vaccination.”

McNeely raised other structural issues that affect staffing.

A lack of affordable housing making it more difficult to assemble a whole crew for morning sailings from Gulf Islands terminals, where many ferries are docked overnight.

The whole system runs on overtime, McNeely said, with staff taking extra shifts on days off and working overtime to make ends meet. Combined with a very stressful two years where ferry operations continued and employees were deemed essential workers, the low morale and potential for burnout is palpable, he said. 

Other issues affecting BC Ferries staff include people retiring and the reduction or closure of schools training marine professions due to COVID-19. 

What the union is advocating for with BC Ferries is building resiliency of the workforce by adding new staff or increasing crew sizes so sailings can continue if someone cannot make it in to work. Increasing wages is also needed, McNeely said, as well as working on developing staff internally. 

McNeely said he understands the challenging position BC Ferries is in as a quasi-private organization, which needs to balance public opinion with the needs of its workforce.

NSSWD repels CRD water pressure

Gail Sjuberg
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NSSWD repels CRD water pressure

The Capital Regional District (CRD) wants the North Salt Spring Waterworks District (NSSWD) to submit an application for a federal-provincial infrastructure grant before a Jan. 26 deadline, but the water utility says it has solid reasons for not doing so.

In a Dec. 8 letter to NSSWD chair Michael McAllister, CRD chief administrative officer Robert Lapham asks for clarification about whether or not the NSSWD would be applying for a grant under the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program (ICIP).

“This is to advise you that with the approaching deadline, and the work that needs to be completed, the CRD will be pursuing a grant for another service area (s) on Salt Spring Island if North Salt Spring Waterworks District is not applying for this funding opportunity,” wrote Lapham.

Salt Spring CRD director Gary Holman has been vocal about his belief that the NSSWD should not pass up an opportunity to apply for the grant. Discussions with CRD and Ministry of Municipal Affairs staff have indicated likely approval for a grant covering up to 73 per cent of costs for infrastructure projects like the $5-million Maxwell Lake treatment plant.

“So we’ve been urging them to submit the ICIP application by Jan. 26,” said Holman. “Let’s at least line those ducks up. There is no down side for them.”

Traditionally, an improvement district is expected to dissolve and “convert” to either a regional district or municipal government body in order to access infrastructure grants. On Salt Spring, ratepayers in a number of water improvement districts voted several years ago to become CRD entities in order to get federal-provincial government money for needed upgrades. In part because of those groups’ experience with the CRD, the NSSWD has been reluctant to go that route and is instead pushing for a different governance model as recommended in the Water Service Optimization Study report done by INNOVA Strategy Group and released about a year ago.

In a Dec. 16 letter to Holman, McAllister stated, “It is still our hope and desire to find a way to successfully implement the [INNOVA] consultant’s preferred Option 3 . . . an independent CRD department that reports directly through its commission to the CRD Board, protected by binding legal agreements.”

McAllister told the Driftwood on Monday that negotiations are still ongoing about that possibility, and he and his board feel it makes more sense to conclude that process before applying for grants.

“My preference would be to work out what the [organizational] structure looks like and if it works out favourably so we can all live with it, then we would wait for the next funding opportunity to come along.”

He points out that of the approximately $25 million in infrastructure work the NSSWD needs in the next 15 years, only $7 million would be eligible for federal-provincial infrastructure funding anyway. And since the Maxwell Lake plant is not due to be constructed until 2025, he is confident that another federal-provincial infrastructure grant program will arise before that time.

Holman points to a Nov. 8 letter to the NSSWD from Tara Faganello, the assistant deputy minister of the Ministry of Municipal Affairs, in which she suggests the NSSWD and CRD do not have “irreconcilable differences” and urges the NSSWD to make an ICIP grant application via the CRD. Faganello also stated that the NSSWD would be under no pressure from the province or CRD to convert to a CRD entity until the ICIP grant outcome was known.

While Holman understands the NSSWD’s reluctance to deal with the CRD, he feels NSSWD ratepayers should be the ones deciding whether or not they want to benefit from federal-provincial grant money, even if it means having a different governance structure for their water service.

“To me that’s the fundamental issue here: should the [NSSWD] trustees simply get to make that decision without consulting their ratepayers?”

McAllister notes that NSSWD trustees are democratically elected and as such have been given the mandate to make decisions as they are doing now.

And when it comes to talking about the costs and benefits of joining the CRD, he said, “There’s the immediate cost, and what it will ultimately cost down the road.”

CRD Director Reports on Activities For 2022

Contributed Article
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CRD Director Reports on Activities For 2022

By GARY HOLMAN

Salt Spring Electoral Area Director to the CRD

To suggest that 2021, actually this entire political term, has been eventful would be an understatement. Historic wind storm and rainfall events, drought and fire risk periods, and COVID have tested our community’s resiliency, but we’ve continued to make progress.

I’m looking forward to completion of a number of CRD-related initiatives in 2022, some of which represent the culmination of years of effort, many involving CRD collaboration with other agencies and community groups, and some involving substantial senior government and CRD funding. Some initiatives will also require voter approval. 

Affordable Housing

An additional 34 units of affordable housing at Croftonbrook will be completed by mid-2022, a testament to IWAV’s skill and perseverance. Phases 1 and 2 of Croftonbrook have received over $6 million from the CRD Regional Housing First and Housing Trust Fund programs, and Community Works (gas tax) funding for potable water supply alternatives.  

BC Housing’s project at CRD’s Drake Road site should be completed in 2022. Gas tax funding helped prove potable water supplies for this project, and will do so for other affordable housing development on the site. BC Housing has invested millions this term for the 24-unit Salt Spring Commons affordable housing project, year-round, 24/7 funding for Community Services’ shelter, and transition housing at the Seabreeze Inne.

Locally elected officials have been working with BC Housing to help secure their commitment to find alternative accommodation for tenants of the Seabreeze, necessary if the Lady Minto Hospital Foundation completes its purchase of the inne for much-needed health-worker housing. 

Other CRD-supported affordable housing initiatives for 2022 include: a CRD grant-in-aid to complete a governance study for our local housing council; implementation of the Greater Victoria Social Planning Council rent bank program on Salt Spring; and a sustainability study for Weston Lake to support possible legalization of suites in Fulford village, with  Islands Trust Salt Spring Island Watershed Protection Alliance support.  

Infrastructure

CRD PARC will be leasing the Salt Spring Island Middle School (SIMS) by mid-2022, and will sublet space to a number of local community groups at below market rents. The CRD Emergency Program is already leasing space at SIMS directly from School District 64.

Gas-tax-funded detailed designs for the Ganges Harbourwalk, with input from First Nations, upland owners and the public, will be initiated in 2022. These designs will support grant applications and other fundraising efforts for boardwalk construction.

The Salt Spring Island Fire Protection District (SSIFPD) will conduct a referendum for a new public safety building at their donated site near Brinkworthy. The CRD Emergency Operations Centre will be co-located at this post-disaster facility, the cost of which to local taxpayers will be reduced by gas tax funding. If voters approve this essential new facility, CRD will finalize an option to purchase with SSIFPD and evaluate the feasibility of re-purposing the Ganges fire hall for a year-round food market.

A successful fundraising campaign by the Lady Minto Hospital Foundation and a $3 million Capital Region Hospital District contribution will enable construction of a new emergency room at the hospital. 

A permanent addition of shared daycare/recreation space to the Rainbow Road swimming pool will be completed, funded by provincial grant and gas tax funds.

Detailed designs for the Ganges Hill repaving project, acquisition of rights of way, and preparatory works (e.g., moving ditches and power poles) will be completed in 2022. Repaving with widened shoulders would be completed in 2023, all fully funded by MOTI, and providing a model for future repaving on the proposed Vesuvius-Fulford Salish Sea Trail. 

Other CRD infrastructure initiatives include: upgrading air conditioning at the library, allowing its use as a cooling centre; studies of reclaimed water at the Ganges sewage treatment plant and liquid waste disposal options at Burgoyne facility; initiating the downtown Ganges Active Transportation Plan and completing detailed designs for south Rainbow Road sidewalks and the Merchant Mews pathway; completion of a 3D-printed cement bus shelter at Mobrae.

Climate Action/Food Security

CRD PARC’s purchase of an 80-acre forested parcel in the Mount Maxwell area could be completed next year, subject to a successful public fundraising campaign.

The Salt Spring Island Abattoir Society has begun construction of a composting facility at the Farmland Trust’s Burgoyne Valley Community Farm, funded by grants and gas tax. Anticipated additional grants and regulatory approvals should see the facility operating by spring of 2022. 

Other related initiatives with funding through CRD: opening The Root food storage and processing facility; continuation of the rainwater catchment rebate program for private well owners; free transit for children under 12; a new Level-2 charger at the swimming pool. 

Governance

Public consultation on a Local Community Commission (LCC), based on a discussion paper and supported by CRD and provincial staff, will begin in the spring of 2022. An LCC would be comprised of four, elected-at-large members, who with the CRD director would broaden oversight of all CRD services (e.g., budgets, bylaws, policies), and could also consolidate some services. Establishment of a CRD LCC would require voter approval at the next local government election in October 2022. 

Inter-agency meetings, supported by the Community Alliance’s ASK Salt Spring organization, will also begin in the new year.

Grants/Funding

Thus far this term, Salt Spring has secured roughly $9 million in funding commitments from senior governments (excluding emergency road repair costs), and over $10 million from the CRD for local projects and services. There will be additional funding announcements in 2022.

My best wishes to all for the New Year. Please contact me at: directorssi@crd.bc.ca or 250-538-4307 with any questions or comments. 

Property Assessments Soar on Gulf Islands and Vancouver Island

Gail Sjuberg
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Property Assessments Soar on Gulf Islands and Vancouver Island

Gulf Islands property owners can expect much larger numbers on their notices from BC Assessment when they arrive in the mail this week — or when they check online as of today (Tuesday).

BC Assessment says values for Vancouver Island and Gulf Islands properties rose between 15 and 35 per cent, with the increase for a typical Gulf Islands residence rising 35.4 per cent, from $584,000 to $791,000.

For people who can’t wait for the assessment notice to arrive in the mail, the updated values are already on the bcassessment.ca website. People can type in their address to see how their property was valued as of July 1, 2021.

“Vancouver Island’s real estate market has increased in value across all property types over the past year,” stated Vancouver Island deputy assessor Jodie MacLennan in a Jan. 4 press release. “Increases of 15 to 35 per cent are generally evident for single family dwellings, strata homes, industrial and commercial properties throughout the island with notably larger per cent increases in both central and northern Vancouver Island communities.”

An increase in property value does not automatically translate to higher property taxes, as taxing authorities can adjust their mil rates. However, when it comes to bodies like the Capital Regional District, if the value of one’s property increases more than the average in the CRD, a tax increase will result for region-wide CRD services.

As well, local government bodies like the CRD, Islands Trust, North Salt Spring Waterworks District and Salt Spring Island Fire Protection District have already approved or are proposing 2022 budgets with increases ranging from 3.2 to nine per cent.

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