BC Ferries Becomes Self Financing Company
As a Crown corporation, BC Ferries has been subjected to years of political interference in everything from rate setting to vessel construction and spending priorities. seriously inhibited the corporation’s ability to operate in a businesslike manner. however, the ferry corporation’s current structure inhibits access to the outside capital needed to make these investments. The new Coastal Ferry Act is designed to address these problems. Authority. A new, nine-member board with professional and business expertise will be established with representation from B.C.’s coastal regions in order to support the mandate of the new company. will be transformed into an independent, regulated company under the BC Company Act and renamed BC Ferry Services.
Canadian Shipbuilding Effort Hits Stormy Sea
The future of a government program to revive western Canadian shipbuilding remains clouded after investigators released a damning report about cost overruns and bureaucratic bungling. The directors of the B.C. Ferries Corp. resigned after auditors alleged the cost of designing and building a new type of high-speed catamaran ferry had risen from the originally planned $137.9 million to approximately $288.9 million. The report was the latest bad news to buffet the Pacificat fast ferry project, which was launched in 1994 in hopes of developing and building a lightweight passenger ship in British Columbia that could be marketed internationally.
