Chemainus-Thetis-Penelakut (Route 20) FAC Meeting with BC Ferries November 3rd, 2014
Our local Ferry Advisory Committee (FAC) members met with BC Ferries executives on Monday November 3rd in their Victoria headquarters. Attending for the FAC was Sue French, Steve Frankel and Keith Rush. Present for Ferries was Darin Guenette, David Hendry, Steve Nussbaum, Corrine Storey and Captain Lewis MacKay (by phone).
The following are the highlights from our meeting:
Dangerous Cargo (DC): This is a follow up item to our spring meeting. Captain MacKay discussed the idea of reduced DC sailings with DC suppliers. They were open to this idea. Lewis will put together a schedule which will have the 2nd and 4th Thursdays be open for regular traffic, while the 1st and 3rd Thursdays will continue to be dedicated DC runs. This schedule will start on January 15th, 2015. Darin Guenette will lead the communication on this. We will monitor this initiative and review it again at our May 2015 meeting.
Scheduling Changes-feedback/review: We discussed the new schedule at length. The Friday schedule is not working as well as the rest of the week, with many overloads and late sailings. We also talked about the Saturday and Sunday early morning schedule and how the anticipated extra time for fuelling etc, is not needed, as these tasks are being worked in to the normal weekday schedule. As a result, we discussed three potential schedule change options; 1) status quo, 2) a Saturday to Thursday version with Friday morning being the same as it is now, or 3) a 7 day schedule which would be the same as the current Monday to Thursday schedule. Captain MacKay will see if there are any crewing issues on the weekend schedule. Additionally Captain MacKay and I will meet with Sharon Cross and the rest of the Penelakut Band Council to get their feedback on our discussions and the possible schedule options.
Parking at the Chemainus Terminal: We discussed the somewhat recent addition of an extra crew parking (at the expense of a public parking space) in Chemainus, and whether this could be returned to public parking. BC Ferries will look in to this and get back to us.
Thetis Dock-rotten plank: There is a rotten plank under the newspaper box that needs replacing. It is in their work plan; Steve Nussbaum will let us know when it is scheduled.
Signage when the ticket attendant is absent: We asked that an explanatory sign be added to the clock when the attendant is not in the booth. This is more important in the summer with visitors who are unfamiliar with the system of pull into the next available space in holding lanes, park and return to purchase tickets when the booth opens. Steve Nussbaum indicated this initiative is underway already.
Schedule Signage at the Chemainus fence or booth: We asked for a permanent sign with the schedule be placed somewhere for drivers to see as they approach the ticket booth. Steve will look into this pending our schedule discussions.
Expansion of the Chemainus and Thetis passenger ramps: David Hendry reported that this will be looked at when they do the major dock maintenance at Chemainus in 2016/17 and on Thetis in 2017/18.
Garbage can on the Thetis dock: BC Ferries removed the garbage can recently because they found it was being filled almost on a daily basis. We agreed to revisit this issue in the next year to 18 months to see if there has been any chance in behaviour regarding solid waste disposal. As a side note on this discussion, Steve indicated one porta potty will be returning year round April 1st, 2015, and it could happen sooner.
Some Miscellaneous Items:
* CCTV (close circuit TV) cameras will be added to both Thetis and Penelakut docks prior to the end of March 2015. This opens up the possibility of BC Ferries adding webcams to monitor traffic volumes.
* FAC reappointment process. Darin Guenette will post notices later in November regarding this issue. The new term is to begin January 1st, 2015 and run for 4 years. If anyone has an interest in joining the FAC, please let me know.
* BC Ferries has an annual fund raising golf tournament in which they typically split the proceeds between two charitable organizations. This year one of the recipients will be the Harvest House in Chemainus which supports needs on Penelakut Island. The donation is typically around $1300. Good for you BC Ferries!
* Next meeting will be in Chemainus either the week of May 4th or May 11th, 2015.
* We concluded with a tour of their Operations Centre which was most impressive. They have video recordings of most terminals and ships. Interestingly enough these recordings are not kept long (1-10 days) and are not available to public or news media. They are sometimes shared with law enforcement agencies (think Gabriola Island). They have an amazing bank of screens monitoring terminals-traffic and live map displays tracking all their ships. There are always two attendants working on 12 hour shifts, it is a 24/7 operation.
Any comments or feedback, please call.
Keith
Keith W. Rush RPF (Ret)
keithrush17@gmail.com
Ph: 250-416-0013
Cell: 250-732-2766
Sunday, November 16, 2014 at 8:37PM 
