Admiral Horgan fires salvo over the bow of Battleship Trudeau

One thing seems certain in the days ahead, Transport Minister Marc Garneau, Deputy Prime Minister Freeland and maybe even Prime Minister Trudeau will all be making use of call display; that after British Columbia Premier John Horgan fired off a shot at the Federal government over a reversal on allowing passengers on BC Ferries to stay in the vehicles during crossings.

BC Ferries broke  the news to customers on Wednesday, advising those who travel aboard the vessels of the return to the previous regulations, banning the option of staying in vehicles, which had been loosened in the spring as a response to the COVID 19 pandemic.

The impact of the Federal reversal will mostly be felt on the southern routes, the passengers on the Port Hardy-Prince Rupert and Prince Rupert- Haida Gwaii routes never were provided the option to stay in their vehicles during transit.

For his part, upon hearing of the reversal by the Feds, Premier Horgan was less than impressed, observing how the decision was a disappointing one for the province, with Mr. Horgan noting how he had raised it with the Deputy Prime Minister that very day.

"We believe that our marine highway is an integral part of an essential service to a huge number of British Columbians and we believe that we can safely transport people, provided that we have support and cooperation from Ottawa. 

This is not something we sought, this is something that is being imposed, returning to a previous  situation that we also felt was a bit heavy handed for the inland waters that our ferries travel in, the vast majority of that is. So we're certainly going to continue to press the Federal Government, we have I think the directive takes effect September 30th ... 

This is an unwelcome intrusion by the Federal government at this time and we're going to pursue it aggressively"

The Premier's comments were made at yesterday's media session revealing the government's fall plan towards COVID and the flu, the topic of BC Ferries arrives at the 38 minute mark.

The latest discussion theme on BC Ferries follows the challenges the provincial government found in getting some financial help for the Ferry service; those discussions finally found success in late August when the Federal government added the province's ferry system to Restart funding for transit initiatives

For more notes related to BC Ferries see our archive page here.