1 absent worker triggered long weekend disruption of Bowen Island ferry service

A single mariner unable to make their shift on the B.C. Ferries Bowen Island run sparked the cancellations of all ferry crossings on the route Saturday afternoon and evening, stranding many travellers overnight on both sides of the water.

B.C. Ferries CEO Nicolas Jimenez said the situation is only more evidence of the ongoing staff shortage plaguing the company. 

"Let's face it, we are in a very difficult period right now when it comes to staffing," he said. "We know staffing is so tight and so challenged, we're just not able to bounce back from these kinds of issues as quickly as we'd like."

Regulations prohibit ferries from sailing without the mandatory complement of trained staff. Jimenez said the pool of reserves who would normally be called upon to fill in was completely depleted on Saturday.

B.C. Ferries scrambled to offer water taxi service on the six-kilometre route between Horseshoe Bay in West Vancouver and Snug Cove on Bowen Island. But water taxis only carry foot passengers, and anyone trying to cross in a car was stuck.

B.C. is one of many jurisdictions unable to find enough mariners to fill vacancies. According to the president of the B.C. Ferry and Marine Workers' Union, the main issue at B.C. Ferries is competitive pay with workers able to earn between 18 and 40 per cent more elsewhere. 

Better compensation, work-life balance

"I like to say this: there is not a shortage of mariners; there is a shortage of mariners at the price people are willing to pay," said Eric McNeely. "We see a lot of people that are leaving the marine industry, leaving our union and going to shore-based jobs because the compensation is better and the work-life balance is better."

Jimenez said B.C. Ferries is working to make jobs more attractive by raising wages and restructuring how it employs people.

For instance, the seasonal worker categorization has been eliminated, and casuals are now getting guaranteed hours. The company has also struck international agreements to bring in foreign mariners. Jimenez said 54 from Ukraine have been employed, along with a number from the Philippines. An agreement with India is in the works. 

"These are the kinds of measures we're needing to bring to the table to address a situation that is completely not normal in terms of the global shortage for talent," he said.

Making the system more resilient is a longer-term fix, said McNeely. He'd like B.C. Ferries to offer internal development so employees can progress up the ladder, similar to what it used to do as a Crown corporation before it was privatized in 2003.

"What I mean is education and supporting people on their education pathway. So, a deckhand or an engine room assistant becoming a captain or chief engineer ... builds that specialized expertise within the organization so that you have depth," he said.

"That was done in the '90s very successfully, and what we saw then was that it became a more equitable [workplace] in that more non-men were being provided educational assistance and advancement in careers."

According to Jimenez, B.C. Ferries has hired 800 new staff in advance of the summer, with another 100 vacancies to fill. Still, he expects the disruptions will continue.

"We've hired more people in the last year than in the history of this company in a 12-month period, and we know that's probably not enough," he said. "This is a problem we didn't get into overnight. This has been building up over a number of years."

The Bowen Island cancellations weren't the only problems faced by ferry travellers over the long weekend.

On Monday, a service outage at the company's data centre in Kamloops took down 15 online services from morning to midday, including the B.C. Ferries website, reservations system and apps. 

"That was a very unfortunate incident that occurred obviously on a very busy travel day," said Jimenez. 

McNeely wants to remind travellers that the front-line ferry workers are doing their best in a sometimes challenging situation.

"The people you see in uniform at B.C. Ferries are not the ones setting the rates. They're not the ones setting the schedule. They're the ones doing their darnedest to keep the vessels moving back and forth to make everyone's travel as routine as possible."