B.C. Ferries passengers stuck after ship loses steering ahead of busy long weekend
CBC
A number of B.C. Ferries sailings have been cancelled after a ship travelling between the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island lost the ability to steer late Wednesday, leaving hundreds of people stranded on board for hours.
The Queen of Oak Bay, which had been travelling from Horseshoe Bay to Departure Bay, had its hydraulic steering pump fail during the 8:05 p.m. sailing.
An announcement came over the intercom informing passengers they would be delayed just a few minutes away from Nanaimo, passengers said.
"It ended up being about 2½ extra hours," said Glenn Alderson, who lives in Vancouver and travels to the Island to see his father.
The vessel was stopped in the Strait of Georgia. Tugboats pulled the ship to dock in Nanaimo, B.C., around 1 a.m. — more than three hours after it was supposed to arrive.
Passenger Karen Kuwica, who's been travelling the ferry route for 40 years, said passengers were relatively calm with most people watching shows, sleeping in their cars or sipping on free hot chocolate from the concession. She was on the main car deck when the tugs pulled up.
"Their manoeuvring was really impressive and they had their big flood lights on ... people were talking, it was all positive."
"I knew that we'd be just fine, that the crews would do what they needed to do and they did," she said by phone. "[B.C. Ferries staff] did their best to make people comfortable. They just did their best in an unfortunate situation."
Alderson was also watching as the tugs did their work.
"It was a pretty cool sight to see, but still not an ideal delay," he said. "The boats are old but you don't expect them to have mechanical failure like that."
A statement from B.C. Ferries said 410 people were on board the sailing.
The ship is still not running Thursday, creating delays ahead of what is usually a busy Easter long weekend.
"We are waiting for an update from engineering regarding the status of the Queen of Oak Bay and an update from our operations team regarding contingency plans for the day," B.C. Ferries said in a statement.
The Queen of Coquitlam, a second ship on the route, is still running Thursday.
Fort William First Nation is opposing a planned redevelopment of the Ontario Power Generation's (OPG) 117 year old Kakabeka Falls Generating Station, which is located in their traditional territory.
A building that sits at the corner of Sussex Street and Brunswick Avenue has had many lives over the last century — being a church, a school and offices. Now it's set to become housing, at a time when the city sorely needs it.
A Waterloo, Ont., elementary school principal will be sentenced in the new year after pleading guilty to child sexual exploitation charges following a joint investigation that involved the London, Toronto and Waterloo police services.
Students at UPEI have let their student union know what they want from the province this fiscal year, and those priorities are reflected in a 2024-2025 advocacy document brought to the legislature on Wednesday.
Larger communities in the N.W.T. will soon see a boost in their territorial funding to maintain infrastructure and deliver services — like water and waste management — but the increase still falls short of what communities need.
The toxic drug crisis has taken more than 47,000 lives in Canada since 2016 and the synthetic opioid fentanyl has become a household name. But now, what's believed to be an even more potent class of synthetic drugs is showing up in drug busts across the country: nitazenes.
The Liberal government and the NDP have agreed to introduce a two-month GST vacation on certain items before the holiday season, Radio-Canada has learned.
Veterinarians are warning Londoners to make sure their dogs are vaccinated and keeping clean after a deadly virus outbreak was declared in London this week.
Registered nurses rallied in St. John's Wednesday as part of a week-long convention, again calling on the Newfoundland and Labrador government to create permanent solutions to staff shortages and workplace violence.
New poll results released by Narrative Research suggest the Progressive Conservatives are heading into Tuesday's provincial election with a commanding lead over their political rivals.
A measles outbreak in New Brunswick is set to push Canada's annual case count to the highest it's been in five years, highlighting how infectious the disease is and how low vaccination rates have allowed it to take hold, says an immunologist.