Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

Letter: It's time to replace unreliable BC Ferries with a bridge

Submitted by Julie Marchant
BC-ferries
A B.C. ferry crossing Howe Sound to the Sunshine Coast. Photo Shutterstock

BC Ferries, the unreliable fat cat of BC, is a symbol of the middle ages. It is a disgrace for BC that millions of displaced people have to endure the pain of relying on such an unreliable unfriendly private enterprise to get to their home or work to and from the mainland.

What do China, Russia, and Sweden have in common? China has connected Hong Kong to Mainland China by a bridge, Russia connected Crimea to the Russian Federation by a bridge and Sweden (you guessed it) is connected to the rest of Europe by a bridge between Sweden and Denmark.

With technology and revolutionized engineering it would take a mere 2 years to build a bridge connecting the Sunshine Coast and Bowen Island to the Mainland and abolishing the inconvenient unreliable BC Ferries all together.

“Yes but what about the cost” argument is not even an argument. The Chinese can build it and pay for it and the taxpayer would not have no fork out a dime. How? By a toll bridge connecting Bowen and The Sunshine Coast to the mainland with a mere $10 toll (beating the increasing unreliable $60 price that you have to pay BC Ferries and endure lines, unreliable service and longer travel time.

“What about the environment” you might add. A bridge with electric cars going through it is much better for the environment than those fossil fuel toxic vessels that BC Ferries employs. BC Ferries is a profitable money-making enterprise that lines up the pockets of its executives at your expense, peace of mind and convenience.

It's about time BC acts and connects the Sunshine Coast and Bowen Island to the mainland and say no more to BC Ferries and the fat cats that run it.

- Julie Marchant