Last winter, when replacement of the aging ferries at the Galena Bay crossing was being discussed, a local group supported the building of a bridge across the Arrow Lakes rather than a new ferry. With a detailed business case (including a new proposed location for such a bridge), the Beaton Arm Crossing Association (BACA) held meetings and petitioned the BC Ministry of Transportation to consider their ideas. Ultimately, the decision was made to build a new ferry, which is currently under construction.
Last week, I sat down with BACA members Earl Frerichs and Gene Nagy for an update on their efforts to advocate for that elusive fixed link. I asked them for their reaction to the decision. “They’re not looking at the long term and the socio-economic impacts,” said Frerichs. “There was no multiple account evaluation done, which all Ministry of Transportation projects must complete,” continued Nagy. According to the Ministry’s guidelines for preparing a business case, such an evaluation would “provide a balanced view to decision makers – understanding the inevitable trade-offs which are required in any decision, compare options within a project, draw comparisons with other projects, [and] facilitate comparison with other program needs (such as health, education and social services).”
According to Nagy, the Ministry did not seriously consider the difference in the long-term costs of building and operating a ferry versus constructing a fixed link. Furthermore, he contends that there was no consideration of the possible increased growth in the region as a result of a fixed link, and the increased tax revenue that could result.
“The ferry limits us,” insisted Nagy, citing the demise of Nakusp Music Fest as a possible symptom of the limited capacity and uncertainty of ferry travel.
Despite the setback to their cause, BACA is pressing on with steps to make a bridge a reality. First, they have had preliminary meetings with JoAnne Alaric of Number Five Productions in Burton regarding a promotional video for BACA. This video would be to show to government officials or other individuals who could possibly influence the decision to build a bridge.
Second, they have met with Audrey Repin of Columbia Power to show her their concept for power generation as part of the proposed Beaton Arm crossing. Nagy and Frerichs favour a crossing at Beaton Arm and a re-crossing of the Columbia to join up with the existing highway.
They propose “river in stream turbines,” recently developed by Vancouver-based Clean Current Power Systems, at the re-crossing that would not impede the water flow. The hope is that BC Hydro would fund that portion of the project and reduce the overall cost to the Ministry of Transportation. Environmental approvals are still pending for the technology, however.
Finally, bridge proponents still see signs of life for their idea. They claim MP David Wilks is very supportive, and they say their meeting with Repin was positive as well. As of this writing, I had not been able to reach Repin for comment.
Also, Nagy believes that pressure to build the bridge will increase when the new ferry goes into service due to inferior service.
“Loading and unloading times will take longer with the larger ferry,” says Nagy, who also notes that operating one ferry rather than the current two could lead to lengthy delays if that ferry goes down.
A brief conversation with Kate Trotter from the BC Ministry of Transportation did not yield much information, as she could not speak to the rationale of the decisions made. However, she did state that “it is our policy that new bridge construction will be subject to a toll if there is an alternate route.” She could not comment on whether an Upper Arrow Lake crossing toward Revelstoke would be considered to have an alternate route.
For a more detailed Ministry response, I found that BACA has posted an official response to their business case on their website, arrowbaca.ca. In that response from February 24, 2012, Glenn Olleck, District Manager of Transportation for the West Kootenay District, states that a high level Ministry review of the business case “identifies some critical items which are missing.” Specifically, he finds that it does not meet their standard for the multiple accounts evaluation – which is the process Gene Nagy claims Ministry did not complete for the new ferry construction. Furthermore, Olleck found that the BACA business case did not contain the level of technical detail required to verify BACA’s claims that a new bridge would be a financially viable alternative to a new ferry.