I disagree the buck should stop and start at the top. The same thing is going on in the Lower Mainland Transit Authority. Sky train cops from all over Canada retiring at 50 with full and generous Publicly paid Pensions then come to Skytrain and Double dip for an additional $75 grand per year being just one example. Then the Govenor of the Bank of Canada states that young people should intern for free to keep their skills relevant while the gout bags keep feeding. That list of characters on the BC Ferries Board says it all.This issue shouldn't get sidetracked with a discussion on Executive Compensation at BC Ferries. The total operating expense for BCF for 2014 was $714 million. The total labour cost component of that amount (including executive compensation) was $269 million. Frankly, the approximately $4 million in EC is mice nuts in comparison to both the total labour cost and the total operating cost of the organization.
My view is that if they can demonstrate they can satisfy the service demands with sufficient sailings between one terminal on the mainland and one terminal mid island at a lower cost - both capital and operating cost - than with two terminals on each side then that's what should happen. As a taxpayer and a regular user of the system, I'm all for keeping the cost of running the thing down.
And for those who are whining about getting from Tsawwassen to downtown Vancouver - it's 11kms difference - not that big of a deal IMHO.