Letter to the Minister

I just wrote the Mister of Transportation for BC regarding BC Ferries. I am going to paste the letter here. Please feel free to copy it ,edit it if you want, put your name, address and phone number on it and send it to

Minister.Transportation@gov.bc.ca



Dear Honourable Todd Stone,

Thank you for taking the time to read this letter. BC Ferries is part of our highway system. We, as users pay an exorbitant amount for the "privilege" to use, what should be, a free service. It costs us $82.25, one way for two of us to cross the straight with our car, and over $200.00 to cross with our RV. We would LOVE to visit the Kootneys, Okanagan Valley, Banff, Jasper, and all the other beautiful places on the mainland. Unfortunately, we can't afford to. Over $400.00 to cross roundtrip with the RV is too much for our pocketbook unless we go on an extended trip across the country.

We thought of going to one of the many islands accessible by ferry from Vancouver Island. We have scooters that we love to ride. Unfortunately, $45.00 per scooter one way. $180.00, round trip for two scooters for a day on an island is beyond our pocketbook. Even the islands that are $45.00 per scooter round trip is too much for just one day. We would love to go by RV, however, if we can't afford the scooters ferry cost, we can't afford the RV's ferry cost.

I would like to know what you plan on doing to bring BC Ferries BACK to the public. I wrote BC Ferries about their costs and ridership being down. Ridership is down because the prices are too high! If they cut their prices by half, they would have to double or even triple sailing frequencies.
I have not had a response from them. I doubt I will, it has been well over six months since I have written them.

I know I am not the only person grumbling about the cost of ferries, I also know, you know this fact. Anybody who doesn't, has their head in the sand. I have yet to meet anybody who believes the ferry costs are fair.

Please let me know what you plan to do to bring BC Ferries back to the people, and eliminating, or at the very least significantly reducing costs. Please note that "nothing", "I don't know", and "there is nothing you can do", as well as any wording that means the equivalent, are unacceptable answers.

Because this is an e-mail sent from a form, I am CCing myself for the date, and to retain a copy so I will be able to forward it on in the event that I do not hear from you in a reasonable amount of time. I am also going to post this on my Facebook page and my blog, along with your response when it arrives.

I look forward to hearing from you regarding this matter, at your earliest convenience.

Sincerely