Decommissioned B.C. ferry concerns Island residents; facility owner says he's providing necessary service

A long-retired B.C. ferry arrived on the shore of the Comox Valley this week and has already begun turning heads and raising environmental concerns.

Daniel Arbour is the Area A director for the Comox Valley Regional District. He says he has been hearing concerns from local residents about the Queen of Burnaby since it was first noticed being towed to Union Bay.

“(We’re hearing) lot of environmental concerns,” Arbour says. “People are used to seeing reports of ships breaking apart at operations in Bangladesh and Pakistan.”

The vessel, decommissioned by BC Ferries back in 2017, has been moored in Richmond but was towed to Union Bay on Nov. 29. It’s now located at a property that was formerly used as a log sorting facility.

“There’s been a change in the foreshore licence and the province re-categorized it in mid-October from ’log sort’ to ‘general industrial,’” Arbour says. “So, that would allow ships to come there and be moored and then I guess the hope of the enterprise would be that they can then do ship deconstruction on their lot.”

Arbour says there was little public engagement about the change and says the regional district is looking into how it happened.

“In our opinion, this likely requires a rezoning and a temporary use permit for the activities on the land, and for the marine side we really need to have discussions about how these decisions are arrived at within the ministry.”

The operator of Deep Water Recovery, which is now mooring the vessel on behalf of BC Ferries, says there is a definite need for facilities like his to dispose of old vessels.

“We’re told by the coast guard there’s over 900 vessels charted around the coast here that are vessels of concern, derelict vessels,” says manager Mark Jurisich. “So, whether it be us or somebody else, at some point, somebody has to really be aggressive dealing with the problem.”