We're Still Listening

Thank you to everyone who attended our round table conversations on May 26 and 27^th.

Eighteen BC Ferries staff and two professional facilitators were joined by 170 people on Denman Island and 90 people on Hornby Island to have open dialogue on the Denman East terminal project, summer schedules, and other topics of importance to the community.

Participate online

We continue to listen through our online engagement, which is open until June 16^th for those who were not able to attend the sessions, or those who wish to contribute additional feedback. Share your thoughts here: https://www.bcferriesprojects.ca/denman-east-terminal/survey_tools/denman-hornby-feedback

What we heard

We are grateful for the input we received. A detailed ‘what we heard report’ will be coming, but some of the key themes we heard were:

From Denman Island:

• The impact of Hornby Island-bound traffic on safety and quality of life for Denman Island residents, e.g. speeding, road safety, environmental impact
• The desire for a direct Buckley Bay – Hornby Island route
• The importance of taking a full-system view, including the potential to make changes at Buckley Bay to mitigate the traffic concerns created by Hornby-bound traffic, e.g. allowing only one Hornby Island sailing of traffic onto Denman Island at a time
• The desire to retain as many trees as possible and the rural feel of the Denman East terminal
• The desire to be re-engaged on plans for the Denman East terminal

From Hornby Island:

• The importance of travel certainty for residents, and the desire for priority for medical travel and school children
• The desire for Hornby residents to have equal shared deck space with Denman residents on the sailings between Denman Island and Buckley Bay
• The desire to proceed with the Denman East terminal project
• Requests for clarity on operational procedures, e.g. loading/unloading procedures, livestock policies etc.
• Requests to reassess the Monday-Friday two-ship schedule from Buckley Bay – Denman Island, and realign sailings to include weekends

Our next steps

Using the feedback we heard through our sessions and online, we will prepare a ‘what we heard’ report for publication to communities this summer.

Our teams are already busy discussing how we can respond to what we heard. We will be back to the communities later this summer/early fall with our next steps. This will include an update on our plans for further engagement on the Denman East terminal project for both Denman and Hornby Island communities.

Once again, thank you to everyone who attended the sessions. And thank you for hosting us in your community halls. We greatly appreciate the use of these amazing community spaces and we look forward to continuing our work with you in the near future.