The Greater Victoria Harbour Authority has been dragging its heels on the shore power project for years. Now, apparently, the projected cost is in the region of $100 million — a cost that “just isn’t in the cards,” according Mark Mawhinney, the authority’s board chair.

Interestingly, the Times Colonist reports that other ports have managed to get the job done.

“Vancouver was the first in Canada to build shore power at the Canada Place Terminal in 2009. … Other cruise ports in Canada have followed — Halifax in 2014, Montreal in 2017 and Prince Rupert in 2022. … Seattle port, a major base for the Alaska cruise run, is also electrified.”

Cleaning up carbon emissions deposited by cruise ships the size of small towns should be seen as an essential — not optional — cost of doing business.

It is unclear, moreover, why taxpayers should be left holding the bag. User-pay is a widely-applied principle that should be used here.

If the cost is really (plus or minus) $100 million, so be it. (With almost one million passengers a year, writing off the capital cost should not take long.)

And if the GVHA can’t figure it all out, get someone else to do the job.

Roger Purdue

Victoria

I was dismayed to read that the Greater Victoria Harbour Authority has decided to abandon its plan to electrify cruise ships, citing excessive costs.

On the very same day, Trevor Hancock reminded us in the Times Colonist that the fossil fuel industry continues to receive billions of dollars in subsidies from Canadian taxpayers. The contrast could not be more striking — or more frustrating.

We are constantly told that we cannot afford meaningful climate action. Yet, year after year, public money continues to flow to industries whose products are driving the crisis.

Imagine if even a fraction of those subsidies were redirected toward projects like shore power for cruise ships.

Victoria’s harbour could become a model for clean tourism, protecting both our air quality and our climate future.

Instead, short-term economics once again triumph over long-term responsibility.

Cruise emissions foul the air we breathe and undermine our city’s environmental commitments. Abandoning electrification is not just a local setback; it symbolizes a broader failure to align our investments with our values.

If governments truly believe........

© Times Colonist