North Cowichan’s mayor is the latest municipal leader to support a campaign led by a Vancouver Island MP calling for fair and stable federal operational funding for BC Ferries.
Rob Douglas said he wrote to Housing and Infrastructure Minister Gregor Robertson to express council’s support for Courtenay-Alberni MP Gord Johns’ Fair Federal Ferry Funding campaign.
Parksville council has endorsed a motion by MP Gord Johns which calls for fair federal support for BC Ferries.
Johns’ M-35 Federal Operational Support for BC Ferries calls for equal funding with East Coast interprovincial ferry systems, which received $291 in federal operational support per passenger in 2024/2025, compared to $1.63 in federal support for BC Ferries passengers.
“He’s getting bipartisan support from federal Conservative MPs on this. He’s getting a lot of traction,” said Coun. Sean Wood, who brought the motion to council on July 20.
North Cowichan Mayor Rob Douglas is calling on the federal government to provide long-term and fair funding for BC Ferries, lending his support to a motion introduced in Parliament by Courtenay-Alberni MP Gord Johns.
Douglas sent an open letter to Canada’s Minister of Housing and Infrastructure, urging Ottawa to treat BC Ferries as essential transportation infrastructure and provide funding comparable to what is offered to federally supported ferry services in Atlantic Canada.
“Our ferry system here with our coastal communities, we view it as an extension of the highway system,” Douglas said. “Gord Johns, the Member of Parliament for Courtenay-Alberni, has led this campaign. He’s brought forward a motion in the House of Commons.“
Qualicum Beach council will send a letter supporting Courtenay-Alberni MP Gord Johns’s campaign urging the federal government to provide long-term operational funding for BC Ferries comparable to ferry services in Eastern Canada.
Council unanimously approved the motion during its regular meeting on July 15, after Coun. Scott Harrison proposed the town endorse the MP’s advocacy efforts.
Johns is calling on Ottawa to modernize the 1977 federal agreement governing BC Ferries and provide stable, long-term operational funding. He argues that without additional federal support, British Columbians could face fare increases of at least 30 per cent by 2028, service reductions, or both.
“According to an analysis by the Library of Parliament, BC Ferries received approximately a-dollar-sixty-three in federal operational support per passenger in 2024-25, compared to that of 291-dollars for federally supported east coast ferry systems,” Johns said in the House of Commons in May.
Johns said BC Ferries has warned that without additional government funding, ferry users could face fare increases of at least 30 per cent by 2028.
He said ferries are not a luxury for coastal communities but marine highways that connect people to work, school, medical care, family, goods and essential services.
A Vancouver Island MP is calling on Ottawa to provide a further subsidy to BC Ferries.
Courtenay-Alberni MP Gord Johns called on the federal government to make ferry travel more equitable across the country Wednesday.
He says it’s not fair that ferry passengers in eastern Canada are subsidized so much more than those in western Canada.
Courtenay – Alberni MP Gord Johns says there’s a huge disparity between east coast and west coast ferries.
He said BC Ferries received approximately $1.63 in federal funding per passenger, while east coast ferry systems received approximately $291 per passenger, roughly 178 times more than BC Ferries.
“We often hear about western alienation, well it’s real, and few large populations in Canada understand that feeling better than Vancouver Islanders,” he said. “This isn’t about taking away support from Atlantic Canadians – their ferry systems are essential national infrastructure – the question Vancouver Islanders are asking is why essential marine highways on the west coast aren’t treated with the same level of federal importance?”
Eby said he was disappointed there had not been more emphasis on what he called “the incredibly unfortunate treatment” of ferry users in British Columbia compared with those in Eastern Canada.
“The fact that the federal government paid for an entire ferry built at the same (Chinese) shipyard for Eastern Canada, and that it is somehow a problem that BC Ferries users get access to a low-interest loan, is bizarre,” he said.
“It is a situation where B.C. ferry users get, on average, $1 in federal subsidy, while eastern ferry users get $300 in federal subsidies. And so as a result, that disparity and that unfairness needs to be addressed.”
Premier David Eby is calling on Ottawa to increase the federal subsidy for ferry users in B.C. after Prime Minister Mark Carney followed through on a promise to lower ferry fares in Eastern Canada.
Eby said Monday that the federal government subsidizes ferry users on the East Coast by about $300 per person, while ferry users in B.C. receive $1 per person, and said provinces should receive the same per-capita funding, regardless of the program.
The premier said Ottawa must up the federal subsidy for B.C. ferry users, which has not changed for almost two decades.