I have asked the federal government’s Transportation Standing Committee to examine the 1999 fast ferries audit before approving B.C. Ferries’ loan guarantees for Chinese vessels.

Rather than learning from this ­scathing rebuke of government, however, the same failures have been repeated across the fleet for 26 years.

Under CEO Nicolas Jimenez’s ­leadership, B.C. Ferries continues a ­pattern of denying Freedom of ­Information requests; ­underreporting service cancellations; submitting ­contradictory reports; and firing the Ferry Advisory Committees after they gave the corporation failing grades.

The Baynes Sound Connector ­exemplifies these failures.

Despite having the highest breakdown rate in the fleet and costing $5.9 million annually — far exceeding the projected $230,000 — the government claims it cannot intervene.Yet it approved replacing the two Quadra Island hybrid vessels after ­scrutinizing the vessels’ failures. This contradiction exposes the government’s selective engagement.

The government remains silent about allocating $500 million to keep fares low, and Jimenez’s announcement of a 30% fare increase by 2028. By denying reservation refunds and eliminating non-reserved spots on the long runs, customer costs have risen.

A corporation dependent on government subsidies repeating fast ferry failures with impunity isn’t qualified for more public money without stronger oversight.

And a government that has not ­reintroduced Bill 7 (Coastal Ferry Act Amendment), which gives the government stronger governance powers, isn’t qualified to approve additional loans.

Sharon Small

Denman Island

In response to the commentary by a Saanich resident referring to Victoria as “the weird kid we try to avoid,” I feel his frustrations around the interwoven homelessness-mental health-addiction-poverty crises, but perhaps he could look at........

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