The MV Quinsam docked at the Nanaimo Harbour. (Alex Rawnsley/NanaimoNewsNOW)

By Jordan Davidson

plan accordingly

Expect ferry delays due to severe weather and sick days

Jan 10, 2022 | 4:27 PM

NANAIMO — BC Ferries is giving the heads-up to customers to expect delays and canceled ferries on their service for what could be the next few months.

BC Ferries’ spokesperson Deborah Marshall said it’s due to a combination of factors, with the leading cause being the Omicron variant of COVID-19.

“We are facing a challenge crewing our vessels…we’ve got the variant which is causing more employees to call out sick, we’ve got the regular cold and flu season underway, we’ve had some severe winter storms lately that has caused us to tie up our vessels temporarily for safety reasons, and there’s also vaccine policies at play as well.”

She said they know this will likely cause disruptions over the next few months because even their fully vaccinated crew members are becoming ill due to the Omicron variant, as well as other seasonal illnesses.

“We are asking those employees to stay home as everybody should if they are feeling sick, so it is causing us some crew shortages,” Marshall told NanaimoNewsNOW.

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Monday mornings first round trip between Tsawwassen and Duke Point had to be canceled due a shortage of crew members.

Marshall said these delays will likely hit their inter-island routes the hardest.

As per Transport Canada rules, each ferry needs a certain number of crew on board to operate safely. The smaller, inter-island bound ferries are more likely to be canceled when a few crew members call in sick due to smaller crew sizes.

The larger ferries are able to shift staff to other non-safety critical positions when there is a shortage. They also accept fewer customers on board during these times.

Marshall said they always try to give their customers as much of a heads-up as possible when ferries are delayed or canceled.

“We just want to apologize to our customers. We know that ferry travel is important to a lot of customers particularly on our smaller routes. It is an essential service and I know our crews are doing the utmost that they can to provide the best possible safe service we can.”

You can go to bcferries.com or follow them on Twitter @BCFerries for all the up-to-date information on all sailings.

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jordan@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @JordanDHeyNow