Political Goals of The Fast Ferry Program
Perhaps more important than the need for a more efficient ferry system was the NDP Government's desire to rebuild and collect taxes from the shipbuilding industry of British Columbia. During the early 1900s, shipbuilding in British Columbia was at its greatest, in support of a booming fishing industry. During the Second World War, shipbuilding again peaked with the delivery of two 10,000-ton freighters every week. By the 1990s, however, shipbuilding in British Columbia was nearly dead due, in-part, to the ballooning cost of materials, labour disputes, and increasing competition from Asian shipyards.
Faced with the potential collapse of the west coast ship building industry the New Democratic Party attempted to create business by creating the Fast Ferry Program. Local shipbuilders could emulate the success of Australian shipbuilders such as Incat in Tasmania and Austal Shipbuilding in the global fast ferry market.
In the early planning stages of the project, Australian fast ferry operator Holyman, then one of the biggest and most experienced fast ferry operators in the world, was in talks with BC Ferries and the NDP Government. The Holyman Managing Director and its Global Development Manager met with the Minister for Transport and cautioned him against the BC Ferries FastCat plan. They suggested that a first time builder would find it impossible to construct the vessels on time, within budget, or within weight specification. They also suggested that the intended power would be insufficient to meet targeted speed, even if the vessels were built within weight. Finally, they suggested that the ongoing maintenance and operation of fast ferries required specialised expertise. The company offered its expertise to the government. Their warnings and the offer were ignored.
Read more about this topic: Fast Ferry Scandal
Famous quotes containing the words political, goals, fast, ferry and/or program:
“... feminism is a political term and it must be recognized as such: it is political in women’s terms. What are these terms? Essentially it means making connections: between personal power and economic power, between domestic oppression and labor exploitation, between plants and chemicals, feelings and theories; it means making connections between our inside worlds and the outside world.”
—Anica Vesel Mander, U.S. author and feminist, and Anne Kent Rush (b. 1945)
“We cannot discuss the state of our minorities until we first have some sense of what we are, who we are, what our goals are, and what we take life to be. The question is not what we can do now for the hypothetical Mexican, the hypothetical Negro. The question is what we really want out of life, for ourselves, what we think is real.”
—James Baldwin (1924–1987)
“A man may travel fast enough and earn his living on the road.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“This ferry was as busy as a beaver dam, and all the world seemed anxious to get across the Merrimack River at this particular point, waiting to get set over,—children with their two cents done up in paper, jail-birds broke lose and constable with warrant, travelers from distant lands to distant lands, men and women to whom the Merrimack River was a bar.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The cowboy ... is well on his way to becoming a figure of magnificent proportions. Bowlegged and gaunt, he stands as the apotheosis of manly perfection. Songs, novels, movies, magazines, and operettas have made the least inquiring of us well acquainted with his extraordinary courage, unfailing gallantry, and uncanny skill with gun or lariat. The farmer, meanwhile, sits stolidly on his tractor, bereft of romance and adventure.”
—For the State of Kansas, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)