Brooks blasts Stone over ferry surcharge as oil prices fall
NEWS/POLITICS — B.C. Conservative leader Dan Brooks blasted Transportation Minister Todd Stone today for keeping ferry-passenger fares high while oil prices fall.
Dan Brooks.
Brooks’ head office is in Stone’s Kamloops-South Thompson riding.
He said the price of a barrel of oil – West Texas Intermediate crude (WTI) – fell as low as $74.11 per barrel Tuesday, which makes the decision to keep in place fuel surcharges on B.C. Ferries’ passengers “plainly wrong.”
Oil was selling at prices above $100 per barrel when B.C. Ferry Services and Stone decided to impose the fuel surcharge in January, said Brooks.
“Today, with oil falling below $75 per barrel, it is unconscionable for the company and provincial government to keep ripping off local residents and tourists every time they use our publicly owned ferry system.”
He said the number of people travelling on B.C. Ferries has been on a steady decline since Christy Clark became premier in 2011.
“This year, from January through September, passenger volume on ferry routes between Victoria, Vancouver and Nanaimo, was 134,975 people below the volume over the same period in 2011.”
“Clearly, BC Ferries’ rising fares – and the unfair, punitive fuel surcharge – have hurt the number of people travelling between Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland.”
ArmchairMayor.ca 
The Clark government says it (meaning the province) cannot afford ferry service to the hard-to-reach areas, but you bet they will come to the interior and the north when they want us to subsidize the lower mainland’s rapid transit or Victoria’s sewage system.
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I suppose that the price of a ferry ticket could raised or lowered as the price of oil fluctuates. Though that might be costly in the long run.
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Just as I said when Stone ran for the Lieberals, he is a puppet , and was chosen to run for that reason only. Everything he has learned as a businessman has gone out the window. He has embraced the Coolaid, and doesn’t have a clue about how to do things properly.
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But the KoolAid was blue raspberry…it tasted so good grouchy…so good. How could he resist?
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Lmao.
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mr Stone and his Libral colleagues have totally forgotten that BC Feriries Is service. Its job, like that of hospitals, police, etc, is to serve, not to profit. When will this fools learn?
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He’s forgotten that BC Ferries is not a cruise liner, it’s essentially a bus ride. a) it shouldn’t be advertising when it’s the monopoly. Why does BC Ferries have signage at the Canucks games? They are the ONLY choice aside from flying to get to the island. B) it doesn’t need fancy restaurants. Just put in a small cafeteria as most rides are only an hour long. Those small changes could save them some money.
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