Project Update - October 5, 2020

Project Working Group Composition

Together with the FAC Chairs for the Sunshine Coast and Gambier-Keats, we chose 15 members of the Upper and Lower Sunshine Coast communities, and four employees to participate in the Project Working Group. We took care to choose a representative group of members with a wide-range of perspectives and experience, including:

• Residents (full and part-time)
• Medical travellers
• Commercial trucking & hauling
• Tourism
• Local businesses and service providers
• Local economic development
• Schools and sports teams
• Parents
• Transit users
• Connecting travellers
• Upper and Lower Sunshine Coast Ferry Advisory Committees
• Gambier-Keats Ferry Advisory Committee
• Terminal operations at Langdale and Horseshoe Bay
• Deck operations on the Queen of Surrey
• Catering operations on the Queen of Surrey

We welcome our 19 new members and thank them for their enthusiasm and their willingness to commit their time to this process. We are excited to work with them and to share their progress.

Survey Results Now Available

We heard from almost 1,500 people over our three week online engagement period. People provided feedback on the challenges they felt were most pressing and on the near-term improvements to service they would like us to consider.

The community indicated six priority areas that the Project Working Group will now focus on as they develop potential ways to improve service in the near-term with the assets BC Ferries currently has:

1. Travel certainty for residents
2. Capacity/frequency of service
3. Travel certainty through reservations
4. Terminal infrastructure and operational improvements
5. Travel certainty for connecting travellers
6. Travel certainty for medical travellers

You can view the full results in this report: Considerations for Change - Online Engagement Results (Sept 2020)

The Project Working Group will be seeking feedback from the community on a short list of potential solutions focused on these six areas in early November. Please stay tuned to this page for more information.

Thank you Project Working Group Applicants!

We received over 80 applications for membership on the Project Working Group. The choice was difficult and we thank all those who put their name forward. Everyone who applied for membership to the Group will be invited to participate in a Project Sounding Board. The Sounding Board will be called together to review the short-list of potential solutions and improvements developed by the Project Working Group. The Sounding Board will act as the first step in wider-community engagement on short-listed solutions.

If you applied to the Project Working Group and have not received an email from us by Friday, October 9 please reach out to us at engagement@bcferries.com.

Project Working Group Gets to Work

The Moving Ahead Together Project Working Group completed their first two workshops on September 30 and October 1, 2020. Members reviewed community feedback received through online engagement, and began the process of brainstorming potential solutions to improve ferry service to the Sunshine Coast in the near term. The Group will meet again through October to evaluate the list of potential solutions and arrive at a short-list of solutions that they will seek community feedback on in early November.