BC Ferries apologizes for Salt Spring Island cancellations, says worker absenteeism to blame

CHEK

BC Ferries says a higher than normal rate of absenteeism led to several sailing cancellations that ended up stranding some passengers on Salt Spring Island over the weekend.

Sunday afternoon and evening sailings were cancelled between Fulford Harbour and Swartz Bay, Long Harbour and Tsawwassen, Long Harbour and Sturdies Bay and Studies Bay to Tsawwassen.

A 45-person water taxi was called in to ferry stranded passengers back and forth from Salt Spring Island, though some were stuck with their vehicles until they could catch a ferry Monday.

“It’s a beautiful place and thankfully I’m off on vacation next week, but if I had to go to work, and I work in a hospital, it would be difficult to try to cover for me because we also have a labour shortage,” said Lani Lardizabal.

Other passengers with connecting ferries and planes say they were left scrambling to make alternate arrangement with only a few hours notice.

“Given that this is the situation, why schedule ferries and book passages unless you’re sure you can provide that service?” asked Anne Lambert, who had a flight booked from Vancouver to Halifax on Monday. “And why are they cancelling with three hours notice, which puts people in a pickle?”

In an interview with CHEK News, BC Ferries spokesperson Deborah Marshall apologized to passengers for the short notice.

“We are continuously hiring and we are doing that in various areas. It is unfortunate when we do have to cancel at the last minute and we certainly apologize for that,” she said.

Marshall said that while BC Ferries has hired enough workers to rebound back to normal staffing levels, it’s the level of absenteeism among current employees currently causing issues.

“Normally we’d see about five or six per cent absenteeism rates. Right now we’re seeing about 11 per cent so that is quite high,” said Marshall. “We might have 4 or 500 employees unavailable to come into work at any given time right now and that is causing us difficulties on occasion.”

There are a number of factors causing increased absenteeism rates, and COVID-19 is a major one.

“Due to COVID, if an employee does have COVID they do have to stay home for five days,” said Marshall. “We’re seeing other illnesses if an employee is injured and they have to take the proper time to heal.”

She added that even one crew member being unavailable to work may cause the company to have to cancel service on a particular route.

A water taxi is used to shuttle stranded passengers off Salt Spring Island after several ferry cancellations Sunday, July 17, 2022.

The spokesman for the ferry workers’ union said that the company has hired or rehired more than 1,000 employees since January thanks to a hiring push and the discontinuation of federal vaccine mandates.

“However, that is still not providing the depth required to have consistent and reliable service at this time,” said Eric McNeely, president of the BC Ferry & Marine Workers’ Union.

Union representatives will meet with BC Ferries at the company’s Annual General Meeting next month “to address critical staff training and retention issues,” he said.

Adam Olsen, MLA for Saanich North and the Islands, acknowledged Monday the impact of last-minute ferry cancellations on small island communities.

“Over the last few days and throughout this summer, it’s certainly been a whole series of new issues arising for all sorts of reasons for staffing and the impact of COVID-19,” he said. “All of the islands that are serviced by BC Ferries, that service is absolutely critical and necessary to the economic and social well-being of the communities.”

Olsen said he thinks the provincial government needs to revisit implementing public health measures to control the spread of COVID-19 with global case numbers trending upward over recent weeks.

He added that ferry passengers should factor in the potential for delays and disruptions over the next few months.

“Not a great message to have to give, as I said, but I think it’s the reality of the ferry system this summer.”

Lani Lardizabal, a healthcare worker, was among those who had trouble leaving Salt Spring Island due to ferry cancellations and delays. She says she’s fortunate because she doesn’t have to work this week. (CHEK News)

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