Forty per cent of all the sailings that B.C. Ferries cancelled in its 2023 fiscal year were due to crew shortages, according to a report released at B.C. Ferries’ annual general meeting.

That’s 1,163 sailings cancelled due to staffing challenges — more than double the number cancelled for the same reason in the 2022 fiscal year.

CEO Nicolas Jimenez told the AGM that B.C. Ferries carried more people in the 2023 fiscal year than in any previous year. Despite the seemingly large number of sailing cancellations, he said it represented just 1.6 per cent of the 177,582 sailings that year.

Eric McNeely, the provincial president of the B.C. Ferry and Marine Workers’ Union, says it’s a problem that needs a solution sooner rather than later.

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Delays, cancellations and website problems at BC Ferries “aren’t acceptable,” the company’s board chair said Friday, but Joy MacPhail insists the ferry service has made progress in addressing some of its woes.

MacPhail, a former NDP cabinet minister, was appointed as chair of the BC Ferries Services Board in June 2022 as the company grappled with staffing shortages and service disruptions.

A year into that appointment, she acknowledged the multi-sailing waits and IT issues that have plagued this busy travel season are a problem.

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The union representing some BC Ferries workers wants to reopen their collective agreement and secure a wage hike, warning that staff could quit — possibly contributing to cancellations — if that doesn’t happen.

Erin McNeely, president of the BC Ferry and Marine Workers’ Union, said he certainly hopes it doesn’t come to that. Closing the wage gap with competing companies, however, could increase service “stability” at BC Ferries, he said.

BC Ferries declined an interview request for this story, stating it doesn’t comment on negotiations in the press.

Unionized staff are in the middle of a five-year contract with BC Ferries that includes a pair of two-per-cent increases and the option to reopen wage talks in April 2024. Both parties, however, have agreed to open them early — starting Aug. 1, according to McNeely.

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Frustrations with ferry travel may have hit new highs over the Canada Day long weekend as passengers dealt with massive delays, cancellations, over-packed parking, and more online reservation issues.

BC Ferries’ CEO suggests it is the new reality for peak travel on a system that does not have the depth to handle major stresses.

“I think you saw the system behave as we would expect, in this moment, over the course of a long weekend,” Nicholas Jimenez told Postmedia News.

“We don’t have the resilience we used to have, and we’re going to be at risk for the foreseeable future when it comes to dealing with peak demand. And (customers) have to remember … the July long weekend and August long weekend, those are absolute peak moments of the summer and so the system gets very stressed very quickly when there’s that kind of demand against the business that is running a little bit thin right now when it comes to relief crews.”

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