BC Ferries provides a very important public service – we’re part of our customers’ daily commute, holiday plans and other important travel needs up and down BC’s coast.
People who travel with us value reliability in their ferry service. Every day, we hear about what’s important to you, and this informs the service we provide and the decisions we make.
Today, with a growing population and a growing coastal economy, we’re transporting more passengers, vehicles and cargo than ever, and traffic continues to grow annually. Although our company’s revenues have risen, so have our costs. Economic pressures including the cost of maintenance, operations (such as fuel and personnel), and capital projects like construction and vessel purchases have continued to grow. This challenge isn’t unique to our business; it’s common across all transportation companies and most capital-intensive companies like ours.
Fiscal 2024 was a year where we showed that despite economic pressures, we’re delivering better service to customers. Our on-time performance remained steady and we decreased the number of sailing cancellations across the board, most notably those related to crewing. At the same time, we offered more fare choices, giving customers more value for money choices.
Looking ahead, we’re focused on improving the reliability and capacity of our service while keeping costs as affordable as possible. It’s a complex task, but our aim is clear: meet growing demand, provide reliable service, and ensure financial stability through careful planning. Here’s how we’re accomplishing this:
- Putting more money into building capacity, including our planned New Major Vessel procurement. Our New Major Vessels will be the largest capital investment in the history of BC Ferries. At the same time, we need to focus on keeping our other vessels in good working order and investing in maintaining our fleet as many ships are reaching a critical stage in their lifecycles.
- Offering more space to customers wishing to book in advance, and more discounts to customers who choose to travel at less popular times.
- Investing in our terminals and marine infrastructure, now and in the future, in order to continue to keep our people and customers safe.
- Continuing to look at all projects through the lens of climate action plans and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
We must take on the challenge of meeting the transportation needs of our growing population while at the same time replacing our aging infrastructure, including vessels, terminals and information technology. These are significant investments that we will need to consider carefully.
As we set our sights on creating a sustainable ferry service for years to come, we are at the same time tackling more immediate priorities. Our people are our most critical asset, and for too long they hadn’t seen their pay and other opportunities keep up with the market. We are back on the path to being an employer of choice with significant wage increases for our people, along with creating career paths, additional training and more options when it comes to schedules.
We also must evolve how we work with the communities we serve. That means doing more to hear directly from people who live in coastal communities and continuing to build strong partnerships with the First Nations communities on whose traditional territories we operate every day.
Last year, we made strides in mapping out a long-term vision for BC’s ferry system, through our Charting the Course public engagement. The message we heard was clear: customers care about reliability, affordability and integration with the wider transportation system in our province. This work continues and we expect to have our vision ready for release early in 2025.
Through our Charting the Course engagement, you have set a strong mandate for us to keep pushing ahead on these priorities, while also keeping ferry travel as affordable as possible.
In our 2023/24 Performance and Sustainability Report, we showcase how we’ve taken action and set all this work in motion, and the steps we’ve taken to progress towards our long-term vision for the company.
We have more to do together with our people – our employees, our customers and the communities we serve – to make the right investments and deliver quality, reliable service, in an environment of rising costs. We are up to that task.