26 - North Shore News — Sunday, January 30, 2000

C Ferries to sel
fast ferry subsidia

Frou: pane}

The last PacitiCat is now
65% complete, with 3 launch
date set for April —- and once
that vessel sets sail, BC Ferries
is sticking to its plans to sell
CFI.

“The ume is getting right
to look at the future (of
CFI),” said BC Ferries’ Betty
Nicholson,

As for the ferries them-
selves, Nicholson said the
next vear would be an “evalu-
ation period,” giving the
Crown corporation time to
assess the “reliabilicy, financial
costs (the price tag for the
three ships rose from $210
million to $460 million, with
the construction schedule
overrunning by two vears)
and public concerns” ted to
the use of the PacifiCats.

“A fair trial must be given
to those vessels.” Nicholson
said — though moving them
to another route or transter-
ring them to private owner-
ship remains a possibility.

Many of the people work-
ing inside the hull of the third
ship at CFI’s assembly hall
now face an uncertain future.

Quality assurance manager
Lindsay Docherty and assis-
tant production manager
Philip Kincaid have worked
directly for CFI since the
inception of the project. Now
they’re wondering where the

WELDERS work away on pieces for a fast cat ferry.
The future is up in the air for the labour force brought
together to build the big ships.

neat three years will dead
them.

“Well probably work at
Oasis.” joked Kincaid. “We'd
make good car- washers.”

“I'm going to run in the
election,” said Docherty slyly.

Behind the jocufariw lurks
disappointment. Both men
moved to B.C. from New
Brunswick to work on the fast
ferries, thinking, at the time,
that their stint would last a lot
longer than it has.

“We came out here with a
lot of hope in the project,”
said Kincaid.

“We've both given a lot.
When we first: started three

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vears avo, we were working
68 hours a week. PE think
we've both had about two or
three weeks off in three or
four years. We've put our
heart and soul into this.
There’s been a lot of family
sacrifice.”

What kind of future is
there for the shipbuilding
industry in B.C.?

They shrug. “There's not
very much of a future,” said
Kincaid — not unless some
radical changes are made.”

He cites strict WCB regu-
lations, union structure, and

See Workers page 27

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NEWS photos Paul McGrath

IVAN Wilson (left) and Scott Simpson stand on stairs aboard the third fast cat
ferry. A lot of honest, hard work has gone into the controversial fast ferry project.

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