BC Ferries made released its third quarter numbers last week, timed (coincidentally, I’m sure!) during B.C. Budget week. The news is bad: the Vancouver Sun reports a $23.1 million Q3 loss for the beleaguered Ferry Corp.  

The losses are stacking up:

The deficit for the period ending Dec. 31, 2011 was nearly double the $12.5-million net loss reported in the same quarter last year.

Net earnings for the nine-month period ending Dec. 31, 2011, were $28.7 million, down from $42.8 million for the same period the previous year.

Passenger numbers have also plunged: “In the third quarter of fiscal 2011-12, vehicle traffic dropped by 3.6 per cent compared to the same period the year before, while the number of passengers fell by three per cent,” reports the Sun.

As we have previously written, BC Ferries is in a world of hurt. On former CEO David Hahn’s watch, BC Ferries fell from a $49.9 million profit in 2006 to the huge losses this year. Ferries is now  $1.3 billion in debt. And it’s no wonder why: While wages were frozen and jobs were being lost in the private sector, 60 per cent of BC Ferries’ employees earned more than $89,000 a year—putting them in the top five per cent of all Canadian income earners. While families and seniors were struggling to pay ferry rates that increased between 45 and 80 per cent over eight years, Hahn was approving million dollar ad contracts at Rogers Arena.

Don’t worry though: I’m sure BC Ferries will attract a lot of passengers back with its five per cent fuel surcharge.

And, of course, its CEO earned $1.2 million last year and started retired life with an annual pension valued at $315,000. Plus (as you will see in this YouTube clip) Mr. Hahn thinks it’s great that “tourists” are now a larger percentage of the BC Ferries’ traveling public—completely ignoring the fact that they are a higher percentage because ordinary British Columbians have been priced off the boat.

By: Jordan Bateman
Posted: February 27, 2012
Topic: British Columbia

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