Fast Ferry Scandal

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The Fast Ferry Scandal was a political affair in the late 1990s relating to the construction of three fast ferries by the Canadian provincial crown corporation BC Ferries under direction of the British Columbia Government, then headed by British Columbia New Democratic Party Premier Glen Clark.

British Columbia Ferry Services Inc., operating as BC Ferries (BCF), is a former provincial Crown corporation, now operating as an independently managed, publicly owned company. BC Ferries provides all major passenger and vehicle ferry services for coastal and island communities in the Canadian province of British Columbia. Set up in 1960 to provide a similar service to that provided by the Black Ball Line and the Canadian Pacific Railway, which were affected by job action at the time, BC Ferries has become the largest passenger ferry line in North America and the second largest in the world, boasting a fleet of 35 vessels with a total passenger and crew capacity of over 27,000, serving 47 locations on the B.C. coast.

British Columbia Province of Canada

British Columbia is the westernmost province of Canada, located between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. With an estimated population of 5.016 million as of 2018, it is Canada's third-most populous province.

The New Democratic Party of British Columbia is a social-democratic provincial political party in British Columbia, Canada, which currently governs the province, and previously governed from 1972 to 1975, and then again from 1991 to 2001. Following the 2017 provincial election in British Columbia, the party formed a minority government via a confidence and supply agreement with the British Columbia Green Party, following the defeat of Christy Clark's British Columbia Liberal Party government by a confidence vote in the legislature.

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Despite major delays and cost overruns, the ferries never fully met their original specifications, and only operated briefly in a reduced capacity, before being auctioned off at a substantial economic loss.

A review was later conducted by BC Auditor General George L. Morfitt.

George L. Morfitt is a Canadian squash player, public servant, and businessperson. He has served as president of the Canadian Squash Racquets Association, director of the Canadian Olympic Association, CFO of the Diamonds Group of Companies, Auditor General of British Columbia, and Chairman of the Board for WorkSafeBC. Morfitt is an inductee into the BC Sports Hall of Fame.

High speed ferries

The provincial government at the time, led by New Democratic Party (NDP) premier Glen Clark, decided to use provincial Crown corporation BC Ferries to advance its economic goal of supporting British Columbia's shipbuilding industry by creating a fleet of custom-designed high-speed catamaran passenger/vehicle ferries for BC Ferries. The eventual goal was to use BC smelted aluminum from Alcan, to create jobs building aluminum boats for the international market. The vessels were to be built by private shipyards under the overview of a new provincial Crown corporation to be called Catamaran Ferries International Inc. (CFI).

In Canada, a premier is the head of government of a province or territory. Though the word is merely a synonym for prime minister, it is employed for provincial prime ministers to differentiate them from the Prime Minister of Canada. There are currently 10 provincial premiers and three territorial premiers. These persons are styled The Honourable only while in office, unless they are admitted to the Queen's Privy Council for Canada, in which case they retain the title even after leaving the premiership.

Glen Clark Canadian politician

Glen David Clark is a Canadian business executive and former politician, serving as the 31st Premier of British Columbia from 1996 to 1999.

Catamaran multi-hulled watercraft featuring two parallel hulls of equal size. It is a geometry-stabilized craft, deriving its stability from its wide beam, rather than from a ballasted keel as with a monohull sailboat

A catamaran is a multi-hulled watercraft featuring two parallel hulls of equal size. It is a geometry-stabilized craft, deriving its stability from its wide beam, rather than from a ballasted keel as with a monohull sailboat. Catamaran is from a Tamil word, kattumaram, which means "logs tied together".

Public goals of the Fast Ferry Program

A major impetus for the project was to have BC Ferries spend locally some of the billions that needed to be spent on new ships. The development of Duke Point, truck ferry terminal, south of Nanaimo, and the new island freeway, allowed the north Nanaimo ferry terminal to focus on the passenger market. Large trucks were to be banned from the north Nanaimo terminal and moved to an alternate Duke Point truck ferry.

The improvement promised was to deliver more frequent service (travel time reduced by 30 minutes), with smaller-capacity ships (250 cars vs. 365). The smaller ferries required 17 fewer staff per vessel to operate the same route, reducing operating costs.

Departure Bay, British Columbia

Departure Bay is a bay in central Nanaimo, British Columbia, on the east coast of Vancouver Island. The surrounding neighbourhood is also referred to as "Departure Bay"—once a settlement of its own, it was amalgamated into the City of Nanaimo in the 1970s.

Political goals of the Fast Ferry Program

Perhaps more important than the need for a more efficient ferry system was the NDP Government's desire to rebuild and collect taxes from the shipbuilding industry of British Columbia. During the early 1900s, shipbuilding in British Columbia was at its greatest, in support of a booming fishing industry. During the Second World War, shipbuilding again peaked with the delivery of two 10,000-ton freighters every week. By the 1990s, however, shipbuilding in British Columbia was nearly dead due, in-part, to the ballooning cost of materials, labour disputes, and increasing competition from Asian shipyards.

Faced with potential collapse of the local ship building industry, the British Columbia Government initiated the Fast Ferry Program, expecting local shipbuilders could emulate the success of Australian shipbuilders such as Incat in Tasmania and Austal Shipbuilding.

Australia Country in Oceania

Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller islands. It is the largest country in Oceania and the world's sixth-largest country by total area. The neighbouring countries are Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and East Timor to the north; the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu to the north-east; and New Zealand to the south-east. The population of 25 million is highly urbanised and heavily concentrated on the eastern seaboard. Australia's capital is Canberra, and its largest city is Sydney. The country's other major metropolitan areas are Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide.

Incat manufacturer of large high-speed craft (HSC) catamarans

Incat Tasmania is a manufacturer of high-speed craft (HSC) catamaran ferries. Its greatest success has been with large, sea going passenger and vehicle ferries, but it has also built military transports and since 2015 it has built smaller river and bay ferries. Based in Derwent Park, a suburb of Hobart, Tasmania, Australia, it was founded by Bob Clifford.

Tasmania island state of Australia

Tasmania is an island state of Australia. It is located 240 km (150 mi) to the south of the Australian mainland, separated by Bass Strait. The state encompasses the main island of Tasmania, the 26th-largest island in the world, and the surrounding 334 islands. The state has a population of around 526,700 as of March 2018. Just over forty percent of the population resides in the Greater Hobart precinct, which forms the metropolitan area of the state capital and largest city, Hobart.

In the early planning stages of the project, Australian fast ferry operator Holyman, then one of the biggest and most experienced fast ferry operators in the world, was in talks with BC Ferries and the NDP Government. The Holyman Managing Director and its Global Development Manager met with the Minister for Transport and cautioned him against the BC Ferries FastCat plan. [1] They suggested that a first time builder would find it impossible to construct the vessels on time, within budget, or within weight specification. [1] They also suggested that the intended power would be insufficient to meet targeted speed, even if the vessels were built within weight. [1] Finally, they suggested that the ongoing maintenance and operation of fast ferries required specialised expertise. The company offered its expertise to the government.

PacifiCat fleet

The vessels built for BC Ferries were intended to improve ferry service between the mainland terminal of Horseshoe Bay (in West Vancouver) and the Vancouver Island terminal at Departure Bay (in Nanaimo).

The three vessels were built between 1998–2000 and were named as follows:

Technically, PacifiCat Voyager was never part of the BC Ferries fleet, as it was christened but never commissioned; by the time this vessel was ready for deployment, the bottom had already fallen out of the Fast Ferry Program.

The vessels had a service speed of 37 knots (68 km/h) and a capacity for 250 car-equivalents and 1000 passengers. The hulls of all three vessels had slightly varying murals that depict a cougar.

Due to various oversights by the government, BC Ferries, design bureaus, and the shipyards, the cost of the program more than doubled from $210 million ($70 million/vessel) to almost $460 million ($150 million/vessel) and final delivery was almost 3 years behind schedule. As with all prototype construction this cost and build time was gradually being reduced with each successive completion. A large part of the delay was because the shipyards commissioned to construct the vessels had very little experience working with aluminum. Also design changes during construction caused delays and more costs. Previously, construction of aluminum vessels in British Columbia had been limited to fishing boats and special-purpose vessels. The construction of three dual-hulled 122.5 m catamarans represented a very large leap of faith by the Government in British Columbia shipyards.

The first fastcat began service between Horseshoe Bay and Nanaimo on June 1999 and the second fastcat began operating on November 1999. [2] The ferries had the following problems during their brief tenure:

After a change in leadership, the new Premier of BC, Ujjal Dosanjh, placed the ferries up for sale. A subsequent election virtually eliminated the New Democratic Party from the legislature, and Gordon Campbell of the BC Liberals auctioned off the PacifiCat fleet on March 24, 2003 for $19.4 million ($6.5 million/vessel) to Washington Marine Group. Further controversy erupted when it was revealed that the same company, which is a prominent financial backer of the Liberal Party, had offered $60 million for the vessels prior to the auction, on the condition that BC would then rent the ferries. Some claimed the aluminum ships were worth more as scrap. Others said the Indonesians were prepared to pay as much as $88 million. [3]

Projected uses

In September 2005, the media reported that the Washington Marine Group had expressed interest in operating a fast ferry service from Downtown Vancouver to a point on Vancouver Island. When questioned, representatives of WMG indicated that they are actively searching for suitable applications for the Fast Ferries and they would not rule out such a service.

On Friday, December 16, 2005 WMG confirmed that it is considering putting the ferries into service from North Vancouver to Duke Point (near Nanaimo) to compete with the BC Ferries routes. WMG at one point said they intended to make a decision by the spring of 2006.

As of July 2009 the ferries have been sold for use in the United Arab Emirates. [4]

Primary factors for project failure

The primary factor for the project failure was the overall cost of building three fast ferries was substantially more than advertised on the outset of the project in 1994 when it was projected to cost 210 million $. [5]

The press called the BC Auditor General Morfitt's comments perhaps the most damning report the BC Auditor General's office has ever issued. [6] His auditor general report stated there was significant breakdowns in governance and project management were major factors in the failure of the fast ferry project. These breakdowns were identified as follows in Morfitt's government report:

Governance:

Project Management:

The auditor general report was later criticized in a Legislative standing committee by MLA Rick Kasper for ignoring and not accounting the benefits to BC and Canada in income taxes etc. from building the ships in BC. [7]

Fast ferries GAAP depreciations

When the fast ferries were sold, the provincial budget declared a $52 million loss.

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MV <i>Queen of New Westminster</i> ferry in the fleet of BC Ferries

The MV Queen of New Westminster is a Canadian roll-on, roll-off passenger ferry operated by BC Ferries.

PacifiCat-class ferry

The PacifiCat class of fast ferries was operated from 1999 to 2000 by BC Ferries in British Columbia, Canada. Three PacifiCat catamarans were built between 1996 and 2000 as part of a major public project which ultimately failed: PacifiCat Explorer, PacifiCat Discovery, and PacifiCat Voyager. Explorer and Discovery were briefly used for revenue service between Horseshoe Bay in West Vancouver and Departure Bay in Nanaimo. The third ship in the class, PacifiCat Voyager, was completed but never entered the BC Ferries fleet. The PacifiCat project started in June, 1994 with an estimated total cost of $210 million. By the time the ships were finished, it had actually cost $463 million. A 1999 report by the Auditor-General of British Columbia concluded that the fast ferry project had been beset by "significant breakdowns in both governance and risk management."

MV <i>Queen of Alberni</i>

MV Queen of Alberni is a C-class ferry that operates between Tsawwassen and Duke Point in British Columbia. She is part of the BC Ferries fleet.

MV <i>Queen of Coquitlam</i>

MV Queen of Coquitlam is a C-class ferry in the BC Ferries fleet, launched in 1976. She first operated on BC Ferries' Horseshoe Bay to Departure Bay route. For most of her life, she has been a replacement/relief vessel on all the major routes serving Metro Vancouver. She is named for the city of Coquitlam.

Seaspan ULC provides marine-related services to the Pacific Northwest. Within the Group are three shipyards, an intermodal ferry business, and a tug and barge transportation company that serves both domestic and international markets. Seaspan is part of the Washington Companies, owned by Dennis Washington. Seaspan is run by his son Kyle Washington, as Executive Chairman, who has become a Canadian citizen. Seaspan ULC was formerly known as Seaspan Marine Corporation, and prior to that Washington Marine Group.

MV <i>Queen of the North</i>

MV Queen of the North was a roll-on/roll-off (RORO) ferry built by AG Weser of Germany and operated by BC Ferries, which ran along a scenic 18-hour route along the British Columbia Coast of Canada between Port Hardy and Prince Rupert, British Columbia, a route also known as the Inside Passage. On March 22, 2006, with 101 people aboard, she failed to make a planned course change, ran aground and sank. Two passengers, whose bodies were never found, died in the incident. The ship had a gross register tonnage of 8,806, and an overall length of 125 metres (410 ft). She had a capacity of 700 passengers and 115 cars.

Allied Shipbuilders Ltd is a privately held shipbuilding and ship repairing company established in Canada in 1948.

MV <i>Queen of Surrey</i>

MV Queen of Surrey is a double-ended C-class roll-on/roll-off ferry in the BC Ferries fleet. The ship was launched in 1980 and entered service in 1981. The ferry normally operates on BC Ferries' Horseshoe Bay to Langdale route. She is named for the city of Surrey. On May 12, 2003, Queen of Surrey suffered an engine fire that disabled the ferry in Howe Sound. No one was injured and the ship was returned to service. In 2004, the ferry was involved in a collision with a tugboat, and in 2019 she struck a fixed structure at the Langdale terminal. The 2019 crash lead to passengers being stranded on the vessel for over ten hours.

MV <i>Coastal Renaissance</i>

MV Coastal Renaissance is the first of three Coastal-class ships delivered to BC Ferries. At the time of their construction, the Coastal-class ferries were the largest double-ended ferries in the world. This ship operates mainly on the Departure Bay-Horseshoe Bay route in the peak season and on the Swartz Bay-Tsawwassen route in the low season, but can replace her sister ships on any of the major cross-Strait routes whenever they go for refits.

MV <i>Queen of Oak Bay</i>

MV Queen of Oak Bay is a double-ended C-class roll-on/roll-off ferry in the BC Ferries fleet, launched in 1981 at Victoria, British Columbia. The 139.29-metre (457 ft) long, 6,969-ton vessel has a capacity for 362 cars and over 1,500 passengers and crew. She normally operates on BC Ferries' Horseshoe Bay to Departure Bay (Nanaimo) route, part of the Trans-Canada Highway. She is named for the district of Oak Bay.

Fast ferries or fast ferry may refer to:

MV <i>Island Sky</i>

MV Island Sky is an Intermediate-class ferry in the BC Ferries fleet built in 2008.

HSC <i>Virgen de Coromoto</i>

The HSC Virgen de Coromoto is an 86 m (282 ft) fast catamaran ferry operated by Consolidada de Ferrys C.A. in Venezuela. It was built in Australia for a fast ferry service on Lake Ontario between Toronto, Ontario, Canada and Rochester, New York, United States. After the ferry service failed, the boat was sold in 2007 and operated in Europe. From 2007–2012, the boat operated in Spain on a Spain–Morocco service. In 2012–13, the ship operated on Kattegatruten's Aarhus–Kalundborg route in Denmark until October 2013 when the route was cancelled.

SS <i>Asbury Park</i> later renamed Kahloke

Asbury Park was a high-speed coastal steamer built in Philadelphia, and intended to transport well-to-do persons from New York to summer homes on the New Jersey shore. This vessel was sold to West Coast interests in 1918, and later converted to an automobile ferry, serving on various routes San Francisco Bay, Puget Sound and British Columbia. This vessel was known by a number of other names, including City of Sacramento, Kahloke, Langdale Queen, and Lady Grace.

MV <i>Nicola</i> (1960)

MV Nicola is an N class ferry, owned, but not operated by BC Ferries. It is also known as Spirit of Lax Kw' Alaams, a British Columbia First Nations name. Spirit of Lax Kw' Alaams currently runs between Prince Rupert and Port Simpson, a British Columbia First Nations community on British Columbia's North Coast. Overnight the vessel is kept at the Smit tugboat dock in Prince Rupert Harbour.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
  2. http://www.th.gov.bc.ca/publications/reports_and_studies/BCferriesWrightReport/wrightreport.PDF
  3. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2012-11-10. Retrieved 2013-05-03.CS1 maint: Archived copy as title (link)
  4. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2009/07/28/bc-north-vancouver-fast-ferries-sold.html
  5. http://www.bcauditor.com/pubs/1999/report5/review-fast-ferry-project-governance-and-risk-management
  6. http://www.cbc.ca/news/story/1999/10/28/bc_fastferrypm991028.html
  7. http://qp.gov.bc.ca/cmt/36thParl/CMT12/hansard/pa110499.htm