North Cowichan’s mayor wants some action from BC Ferries regarding its long-stalled redevelopment of the Crofton ferry terminal and berth rebuild.
At the council meeting on Feb. 7, Rob Douglas said he understands that the COVID-19 pandemic has caused delays in starting the project, but it’s been more than four years since the upgrade project was first proposed and there has been little movement in some time.
He said a year ago, senior staff from North Cowichan met with officials from BC Ferries to discuss moving the project forward, and what the next steps would be.
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“BC Ferries was going to get back in touch with us with the next steps but, unfortunately, there has not been much progress over the past 12 months,” Douglas said.
“I say this with some frustration. In the past 12 months, I have reached out to BC Ferries numerous times hoping to get a meeting with their CEO (Nicolas Jimenez). The new CEO was appointed less than a year ago and there was some understanding that it might take some time to get a meeting, but it’s been a year and it hasn’t happened yet.”
The ferry company’s terminal development team, along with staff from various other BC Ferries’ departments, began the process of creating a long-term plan for the Crofton terminal in early 2019, but the planning for the redevelopment of the terminal had been put on hold in 2020 due to the pandemic.
BC Ferries said at the time that the two proposed draft plans for the project were complete and awaiting internal approvals, but the impact of the pandemic had caused a slowdown of all the company’s capital projects, including the Crofton ferry terminal upgrades.
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Douglas said, from North Cowichan’s perspective, the two proposed concepts need to be reintroduced to the public and more public consultations should be held on them to gather input before moving forward.
The first concept for the ferry upgrades includes rebuilding the existing trestle to the ferry and making it wider; improving pedestrian accessibility; the creation of a dedicated pick-up/drop-off spot, long-term parking and expanded boat trailer parking off Chaplin Street; and a separation of local and ferry traffic along Chaplin while retaining the skate park at its current location.
The second concept includes creating a new trestle and making the existing one a pedestrian pier; retaining and enhancing the current boat launch; an optional long-term parking lot off Chaplin Street; and a waterfront parking lot amid a pedestrian park and plaza.
Douglas said he met with Rob Fleming, minister of Transportation and Infrastructure, in September to voice concerns over the long delay of the upgrades at the ferry terminal and tried to get the minister’s assistance in setting up a meeting with BC Ferries, and he recently met with Doug Routley, MLA for Nanaimo-North Cowichan, to ask the same thing.
“I’m going to continue to make this a priority moving forward and, hopefully, this meeting can be scheduled very soon because the Crofton ferry terminal project is not only important for addressing some of the issues we’re seeing in Crofton, especially with traffic congestion on Chaplin Street, but also moving forward with this project is a big part of the vision as outlined in the Crofton local area plan,” he said.
In a statement, BC Ferries said that every year, as part of its annual capital planning process, the ferry company reviews the status of all its terminal projects that are planned or underway.
“We expect that review will be complete very shortly, likely in the next month, and we should have more information about next steps for the work plan at that point,” the statement said.
