Capital Planning Update March 2024

As an essential public service, it is our job to keep people moving safely and reliably. We review our capital plan regularly to ensure it’s helping us achieve those goals. Inevitably, that means some tough decisions as we must work within our budget.

During this year’s annual review, we prioritized two main aspects of our capital investment plan:

1. The work required to ensure the maintenance and continued reliability of our infrastructure
2. The delivery of vessels to replace our aging fleet and meet the growing capacity demands of the communities we serve, and the replacement of berths required to support new vessel introductions.

As a result, we have had to defer or adjust the scope of some of our previously planned projects to work within available funds. For more on project impacts for Denman Island and Hornby Island, please read on.

Although some adjustments have been made, our plans continue to include $356 million in capital investments this year, and approximately $2.2 billion over the next four years (Performance Term Six). We also plan to pursue additional funding opportunities that would allow us to re-evaluate capital expenditures before the end of the next performance term (March 31, 2028). We will keep you updated as we continue to re-evaluate.

What does this mean for Denman East and Shingle Spit terminals?

As we note above, we have prioritized the work required to ensure the maintenance and continued reliability of our infrastructure for Denman and Hornby Island residents. As a result, the terminal upgrades planned for both Denman East and Shingle Spit have been deferred for the foreseeable future.

We’ve heard from the community the importance of safe vehicle travel across the islands. For that reason we will continue to stay connected with our partners including Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure, Islands Trust, and other stakeholders to work on operational improvements for vehicle staging, traffic control and communication.

In addition, the intention is to provide year-round increases in service beginning in 2026, once a vessel is available to be deployed full-time to route 22 (Denman East – Hornby Island). In the interim, we will continue to provide increased peak-season service as we did last summer; utilizing the Kahloke alongside the Baynes sound connector on route 21 (Buckley Bay – Denman West), and positioning the Quinitsa on route 22. These adjustments showed considerable improvements in service and decreased wait times last summer. We remain interested in the community’s feedback on changes to summer service and will provide an online survey in the coming weeks.

At Shingle Spit terminal, we continue to work with K’omoks and Qualicum First Nations on remediation measures for the archeological site. We will continue to keep the community updated as these efforts progress. In addition to this remediation work, we are aware of the hatching on the trees surrounding the Denman East terminal and have contacted an arborist to explore means to ensure that the ecosystem remains healthy.

We thank you for your understanding as we make the challenging decisions required to ensure the maintenance and continued reliability of our infrastructure. We will reconnect as plans for these terminals evolve should funding become available.