The Campbell River-Quadra-Cortes Ferry Advisory Committee (FAC) was established almost two decades ago, however, there still appears to be many residents who are unaware of its existence. There are a total of 13 FAC's on the Coast covering all minor routes served by BC Ferry Services (BCFS). The Chairs all keep in touch on a regular basis as most of the routes have similar ferry related problems, particularly with summer overloads.

The FAC's exist to act in an advisory capacity to BCFS, to advocate for the islands' residents, to pass on compliments or complaints directly through the community engagement process and to receive information back from BCFS. There are ten members on the Committee, five from each Island and the names are all listed on BC Ferries website. We are active all year round, but only meet twice per year with representatives of BCFS and their team is usually headed by a Vice President. Our next meeting is tentatively scheduled for February 3rd. 2023. A community information "drop in" meeting will be held the following day on both islands. Further announcements are expected soon on exact times, dates and locations. The meeting are open for public observation, but if you wish to make any presentation at a meeting, please contact the chairman in advance as the agendas are usually quite tight.

Now the good news, which you will have read about by now, the two vessel ferry service is positively scheduled to commence on January 18th. This has been several years in the making and we hope that traffic will move a little faster when we have 203 sailings per week. The schedule, especially when only one ship is on duty in the evenings, may need some tweaking, so it will be on the agenda for the next meeting and by then some operational experience will be available before considering changes.

With regard to complaints, there is a process to go directly to BCFS through their website, but if you want an answer fairly quickly, feel free to contact us at the phone number or e-mail below and the item will be passed to our contacts at BCFS. An answer, even if it is one you do not want to hear, will be forthcoming quite quickly.

Sincerely,

MIchael Lynch

Chair, CR-Q-C FAC

michaellynchgicable.com or 250-285-2422