By Dominic Abassi

Island Ferries ‘disappointed’ Nanaimo-Vancouver foot ferry won’t start this summer

Jun 4, 2018 | 4:48 PM

NANAIMO — Another summer will sail past without passenger ferry service between Nanaimo and Vancouver.

Island Ferry Services (IFSL) announced Monday it will not begin service this summer due to delays in various approval processes the company said are out of its control. The proponent has been working to establish a passenger-only ferry service between the downtowns of the two cities for the better part of five years.

“We’re disappointed. We appreciate this is a complex project and there are interests that other organizations have. They have to do their due diligence and regulatory stuff…We’re just going to plow through the process,” David Marshall, Island Ferry’s director of operations, told NanaimoNewsNOW.

He said there are three hurdles remaining, the timing of which are out of IFSL’s control:

• Approval of an environmental assessment with the Nanaimo Port Authority (NPA)
• Lease negotiations with TransLink for use of a berth at the SeaBus terminal which are “nearing completion and going well”
• An unexpected environmental assessment related to some minor terminal work in Vancouver

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Marshall said the review involving the NPA is “taking much longer” than they planned, noting it took the port authority nine weeks to respond to a draft version of the report. He said the updated final version will be submitted this week and “We hope the NPA will review and approve it in short order.”

Once all outside approvals are secured, it will take six months for IFSL to get the service up-and-running, Marshall said, adding the only time of the year they wouldn’t launch is November or February.

Meanwhile, it remains unclear where the proposed foot ferry and pending lease agreement with the port authority stands with the Snuneymuxw First Nation.

In August 2017, the NPA and IFSL announced they reached an “offer to lease” for the ferry to operate out of the cruise ship terminal on the downtown waterfront.

However, SFN coun. Douglas White III told NanaimoNewsNOW at the time the first nation was not included in the negotiations and was not consulted in any way, calling the process “very troubling.” He said the land where the cruise terminal is represents an important treaty area for SFN because of its history as a winter village site and its key role in their fishery.

Marshall stressed they are simply trying to lease a ferry berth from the NPA and part of that process required them to engage with SFN.

“We’ve been attempting to do that. We first started talking with the SFN about six years ago. There’s been some dialogue, not as much as we would like, but we’re moving forward,” he said, adding they are not obligated to sign any agreement with SFN before service could begin.

When asked if SFN clearly communicated their wants or demands around the situation, Marshall said “No.”

“Our environmental consultants have some appreciation for what (SFN’s) historical uses are and some of their concerns around our operation in this area. We’ve got some of that appreciation from documents in the public domain…If there were some specific concerns they would have, we would hope they would share them with us.”

An email to SFN chief Michael Wyse was not answered.

When asked if there was a point where IFSL’s investors would drop out and the project would die, Marshall said “I’m sure there is. I don’t know where that is and it’s not a conversation we’re having now.”

IFSL signed a memorandum of understanding and lease agreement with the City of Nanaimo in June 2014. The lease agreement expired in March 2015 because the service wasn’t established by a set deadline.

In November 2015, IFSL told Council during an in-camera meeting they were ready to establish the service, but a month later during another closed meeting Council directed staff to terminate the MOU and allow the NPA to lead an expression of interest process to find interested operators.

dom@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @domabassi