Small Kootenay communities unite to keep ferries running amid labour dispute

Residents in B.C.'s small Kootenay communities of Glade, Harrop and Procter are celebrating a temporary reprieve in a labour dispute that threatened to drastically reduce cable ferry services vital to their daily lives.

The three communities along the eastern shore of the Kootenay River  — only accessible by cable ferry — were facing the possibility of a 90 per cent reduction in ferry services starting Monday morning.

The move would have been part of escalating job action between the B.C. General Employees' Union (BCGEU) and the ferry workers' employer, Western Pacific Marine (WPM).

On Sunday, WMP said the B.C. Labour Relations Board granted a stay on its earlier decision to permit sailings to be cut, allowing ferry services to continue as normal while the board reconsiders the union's essential service order.

In a statement, WMP general manager Odai Sirri said the board will announce the dates of the upcoming hearings next week, during which it will determine whether ferries can be reduced to essential service trips or not.

"To be clear, until the reconsideration hearing is held, all cable ferry services will continue as normal," she said.

For Glade resident Roxanne Reid, the ferry isn't just a convenience — it's a lifeline. 

Reid, a mother of three, said her husband would have been forced to paddle across the icy Kootenay River to get to work if ferry crossings had been reduced.

"We have it parked down by the beach, ready to go," she said of the family's canoe. 

The Glade ferry, which typically operates 130 round trips daily would have been reduced to just 16 sailings, and the Harrop-Procter ferry, which runs a 24-hour on-demand schedule, would have been down to eight a day.

For the three villages, which have a combined population of about 900 people, Reid said the cable ferry is the sole transportation link for residents to access necessities. 

"We don't have any amenities here. There's no doctors, there's no grocery stores, there is nothing. The cable ferry is our highway to everything."

Under the essential service order, which the board will now reconsider, passengers would be limited to emergency and essential travel, such as health-care appointments and students commuting to primary and secondary schools.

"All jobs are essential," Reid said. "We use the ferry to get to our jobs that keep a roof over our heads, fill our fridge and provide the necessities of life."