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B.C. Ferries has used all its $308 million COVID-19 government bailout money, CEO says

Mark Collins says ferry service now on an even keel and needs no more COVID handouts

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B.C. Ferries has used all of its $308 million COVID-19 government financial aid package, says the corporation’s CEO.

According to Mark Collins, in December 2020 B.C. Ferries was given $308 million as a joint offering from the federal and provincial governments to manage the impacts of COVID. The bulk of this money ($280 million) was to cover losses due to COVID restrictions impacting ferry service, while $24 million was to ensure there were no fare increases and $4 million was to ensure there was no reduction in service on small routes.

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Called Safe Restart Funding, half of the money came from the federal government’s $19 billion Safe Restart Agreement, while the rest came from the B.C. Restart Plan (which wasn’t part of the province’s $5 billion COVID-19 Action Plan that was announced in March 2020.)

TransLink and Transit B.C. received similar amounts from the same joint federal/provincial agreement.

Collins said that for the year ending March 31, 2022, B.C. Ferries used $102.3 million in Safe Restart Funding — which wiped out the ferry service’s $68 million loss for that year, turning it into a $34.1 million profit.

During the previous year of April 1, 2020, to March 31, 2021, the company used $186 million in Safe Restart Funding, which wiped out a $175 million operating loss for that year and coincided with the aggressive onset of COVID in B.C.

“The operating relief component of the Safe Restart Funding B.C. Ferries received has now been exhausted,” Collins said. “The company does not foresee the need for any further COVID relief funding.”

B.C. Ferries had a better year in 2021-22 than the previous year but hadn’t recovered to pre-pandemic numbers. In 2021-22 the service carried 17.9 million passengers and 8.5 million vehicles — that was 37 per cent and 26 per cent more, respectively, than during the COVID-ravaged 2020-21 year.

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The 2021-22 passenger and vehicle traffic levels were 20 per cent and five per cent less, respectively, than in 2019-2020.

In 2021, B.C. Ferries received four new electric-hybrid Island Class ferries (47-car and 450-passenger capacity) for the Quadra Island to Campbell River, and Nanaimo to Gabriola Island runs.

On June 20, six new members were appointed to the B.C. Ferry Services Board, that earlier this year produced a report stating Collins was being overpaid.

The provincial government also recently introduced legislation (the Coastal Ferry Amendment Act) giving the government more power to manage the corporation’s board of directors and to oversee its decisions.

dcarrigg@postmedia.com

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