Public hearings to help the B.C. government get ideas for how it can achieve $26 million in savings by 2016, as well as get input on the long-term vision for coastal ferry services in B.C., get underway today.
The first of the public open houses, announced last month, will be held tonight (November 26) at 6 p.m. at the SFU Segal Graduate School of Business at 500 Granville Street.
Victoria earlier this year urged BC Ferries to find efficiencies and cut service in the wake of a financial report that showed vehicle traffic at a 13-year-low and passenger traffic at a 21-year low.
The quasi-private corporation, which is owned in part by the provincial government and receives taxpayer dollars to fund its operations, reported in June $16 million in losses for the fiscal year that ended March 31.
The company then announced in August that it would cut 98 round-trip sailings between Metro Vancouver and Vancouver Island between October and March to boost capacity on remaining runs.
Those cuts are expected to be in effect for the next four years and would save $1 million annually.
