MV Coho Crucial to Victoria’s Economy

According to last Sunday’s Peninsula Daily News, the MV Coho is even more crucial to Victoria than anyone realized. The car-passenger ferry contributed $123.7 million to Victoria’s economy in 2006.

The ferry transported 205,144 passengers, supported 3,541 full-time jobs and contributed $12.4 million in taxes to the British Columbia government in 2006.

These were the results of the first economic study of the MV Coho’s impact on Victoria. As important as the Coho is to the Port Angeles economy, Victoria would be even more devastated if this ferry system were jeopardized.

The study doesn’t have any economic predictions of what would happen to Victoria if the Coho were moved out of the Inner Harbour. But hopefully these results will be the final nail in the coffin for the absurd clueless idea of moving the Coho away from Victoria.

A Chance for the MV Coho?

Civic leaders from Port Angeles and Victoria (including Karen Rogers and Victoria Mayor Alan Lowe) will meet this Friday. They're hoping to save the Coho's landing facilities in Victoria's Inner Harbour. Let's hope they come up with something, since Port Angeles and Victoria are both heavily dependent on ferry traffic between the two cities.

The meeting will take place on the ferry and at the Landing Restaurant.

Karen Rogers said: "Not only is it important to us, it should be very important to them. It puts $500,000 in their town, a tremendous value to Victoria. I'm not sure they understand the economic impact if the Coho moves to Sidney."

The meeting will also include getting maximum tourism out of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, and encouraging more tourists to take "two-nation vacations."

Here are some links (already given in an earlier post):

If you want to e-mail the mayor and/or city council of Victoria, you can do that here. And here is a link for writing a letter to the editor of the Victoria Times Colonist.

Here is the main website for the Victoria Times Colonist. And be sure to check out Vibrant Victoria — a forum for Victoria issues. There are quite a few posts and comments there regarding the Coho. The two cities are both affected by a lot of the same issues; hopefully there can be more interaction.

Here is an online petition for keeping the MV Coho in Victoria's Inner Harbour.

Port Angeles-Victoria Ferry (Cont’d)

No breaking news here; just a few links regarding the MV Coho and its possible move out of Victoria Harbor. Since most of the people of Port Angeles and Victoria are against this move, hopefully the Coho will remain in the Inner Harbor.

At an earlier post, a commenter left a link for e-mailing the mayor and/or city council of Victoria. You can do that here. The same person also provided a link for writing a letter to the editor of the Victoria Times Colonist.

Here is the main website for the Victoria Times Colonist. And be sure to check out Vibrant Victoria — a forum for Victoria issues. There are quite a few posts and comments there regarding the Coho. The two cities are both affected by a lot of the same issues; hopefully there can be more interaction.

UPDATE: Here is an online petition for keeping the MV Coho in Victoria's Inner Harbour.

Other Local Online Forums

I first started this blog because I didn’t know of any online forums in this area. All I knew about was the Port Angeles Journal, which seems like it’s been pretty inactive for the past few years. The same author also publishes the Citizen Review Online, but there's no forum there as far as I know.

Two years ago during the Tse Whit Zen/graving yard controversy, there were two websites for people to voice their differences on that issue; but both of those sites have gone belly up.

During various web searches involving Port Angeles, I've found two national forums that each have a brief section on Port Angeles. Some of the comments are from local residents and some are from people who once lived here or visited here a long time ago. Some of the comments about Port Angeles are positive and some aren't. They're here and here, if you want to see what people think of us. (Or in case you want to answer some of the comments).

Victoria has a huge forum here. With all the travel between Port Angeles and Victoria, we’re affected by some of Victoria’s issues, especially their tentative plan to move the MV Coho from Victoria to Sydney or Esquimalt.

A Threat to the Port Angeles-Victoria Ferry?

Uh oh. That’s a pretty alarming headline in today’s PDN. A Victoria task force has decided that the MV Coho has “outgrown the inner harbor.” Victoria is planning a huge redevelopment project for Victoria Harbor, and the “new improved” version won't have space for the Coho. It would be relegated out to Sydney or Esquimalt.

How’s that for a brilliant idea.

If the Port Angeles-Victoria ferry is jeopardized, Port Angeles isn't the only city that would suffer. Even though Victoria is much larger than P.A. and gets a lot more tourists, Victoria merchants are up in arms over this insane proposal.

Ryan Burles, from the Victoria office of Black Ball Transport, Inc., said “We're a bit in shock. We know we're the number one carrier of ferry travelers to this city. We bring in 60 percent of the ferry travelers, and we do it more reliably and more affordably than anyone else.”

He also said “The whole idea of the task force was to create a premier gateway, so why would you take away your number one transportation provider? We need to voice our concerns and tell them what we provide and how well we provide.”

Black Ball Transport has taken an average of 131,000 vehicles and 511,000 passengers from Port Angeles to Victoria each year for the past fifteen years.

This redevelopment proposal is still in the preliminary stages; no action will be taken any time soon. As the plan gets worked out, hopefully cooler heads — ones with brains inside — will prevail.

UPDATE:

Here is the link to a Victoria online forum regarding the Victoria Harbor "improvements." I think Port Angeles residents should register with this forum and express their views, since this issue will have a major impact on residents of Port Angeles and Victoria.