Yes actually the MS Scotia Prince would be an IDEAL replacement and Im thinkin the closest and BEST replacement they could find as she is US Coast Guard approved and Im sure it wouldn't be too difficult to transfer her to Canadian Registryand have her approved in Canada with much work!

I'd say that she was probably too long though. I can only think of Gabriel Scott or windward II (I think she is called), of Casino Express as being suitable. Gabriel and Windward are near sisters of Prince Rupert, Windward has more cabins (previously Earl William in the UK).

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Ferry to Queen Charlottes 'unlikely' in 2006
April 19, 2006

BC Ferries says it is possible but "unlikely" there will be the regular summer ferry to the Queen Charlotte Islands this year's, following last month's sinking of the Queen of the North.

The corporation has just one ship left to ferry thousands of passengers on its two busy summer routes along B.C.'s North Coast.

The Queen of Prince Rupert is back in service this week out of Port Hardy on northern Vancouver Island, making trips to Prince Rupert and the Queen Charlotte Islands.

BC Ferries usually adds a second ferry in the summer, dedicating one vessel to each of the routes.

B.C. Ferries release: Queen of Prince Rupert to Resume Service on April 19

However, Ferries spokesperson Deborah Marshall said that's unlikely this summer, as the company is still searching worldwide for a replacement for the Queen of the North.

Marshall also noted that even when a suitable ship is found, it could take months to bring it up to Canadian standards and train a crew to operate it.

Other options being considered including scaling back the summer schedule, so the Queen of Prince Rupert does both northern runs, or replacing the Queen Charlottes service with tug boats, barges and float planes.

Marshall said she doesn't know how much an alternate service would cost, or whether cars and recreational vehicles would be allowed on a barge.

CBC News

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Cheers

[ 04-20-2006: Message edited by: bulbousbow ]

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North Coast predicting a poor summer in their tourist industry
April, 24 2006

PRINCE RUPERT -- The North Coast tourism industry is predicting a very poor summer for the region in light of B.C. Ferries' updated schedule for the summer season.

The new schedule is necessary with the loss of the Queen of the North leaving B.C. Ferries with only one usable ship in the region.

The Queen of Prince Rupert will make two-weekly round trips between Port Hardy and Prince Rupert and three-weekly back and forths between Rupert and the Queen Charlottes.

Steve Smith with the North Coast Ferry advisory committee says this will make for a bad summer. “The Queen of Prince Rupert carries much less people than the Queen of the North so we'll about a 60-percent reduction in passenger carrying capacity and that's really significant,” Smith said

Smith says it's not just the north affected by the loss, he says the economic impact will be felt across the province.

AM980 CKNW

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Queen of Prince Rupert on its own
Lone ship serving northern routes
Jack Knox
April 25, 2006

B.C. Ferries has confirmed the bad news that everyone expected, but didn't want to hear: The Queen of the North won't be replaced this summer.

The new schedule, released Monday, leaves just one ship to juggle two routes in the busy tourist season, raising fears of too many passengers trying to squeeze through too little space in the ferry funnel.

Still, the company is being praised for trying to ensure that vessels leave ports on the same days as had been scheduled before the March 22 sinking. The routes may not be as previously advertised, but at least there will usually be a vessel going somewhere on the days tourists expect to travel.

The corporation is looking to ease the pain by shuffling its mid-coast sailings and supplementing ferry service with barges and air travel, too.

"They did a really good job in trying to mirror the summer schedule as best they could," said Treena Smith, manager of Port Hardy's chamber of commerce. "But we're still looking at a capacity problem."

What worries Dave Petryk, CEO of the Tourism Association of Vancouver Island, is that international tour operators, having committed to having their customers in certain places on certain dates, will have to reorganize those trips. "If it's not easy to reorganize, they'll take their business elsewhere." And once lost, that business may be hard to win back.

B.C. Ferries has been scouring the globe for a suitable replacement for the Queen of the North ever since the ferry sank. The corporation is chasing a couple of promising leads, is sending a team back to Europe to look at vessels this week, but even if that works out there won't be time to slip the new ship into the summer schedule.

"There's no way we're going to have one for this summer," Ferries vice-president Mark Stefanson said Monday. "We're basically sharing the Queen of Prince Rupert between two routes."

That means the summer service connecting Prince Rupert and the Queen Charlottes will be halved to three times a week. However, with commercial traffic being diverted to barges, Ferries feels it can handle as many private vehicles as before. Medical cases will be flown from Sandspit to the mainland.

The Prince Rupert-Port Hardy route will go from 3 1/2 round-trips a week to two. Some passengers might be carried between those two communities by air, with some sort of eco-adventure -- whale-watching, perhaps -- thrown in to give them a taste of the West Coast wilderness so many travellers crave, Stefanson said. The Queen of Chilliwack's non-stop sailings from Port Hardy to Bella Coola will be increased, giving circle-tour travellers another option for driving to the Interior. The little MV Nimpkish is being brought in to connect to such dots on the map as Shearwater, Bella Bella, Klemtu and Ocean Falls.

B.C. Ferries is accelerating its ship-construction program, hopes to award contracts for new vessels for its northern routes this summer. But even a fast-tracked process won't see a newly built ferry delivered until late 2008.

Whether two or three northern ferries are built depends on what kind of ship is found to replace the Queen of the North for 2007. If the corporation buys that vessel outright, and if it's not too old, it will count as one of the three new ferries approved by the provincial Treasury Board last month.

Petryk, speaking from Toronto, where the annual Rendezvous Canada tourism trade fair is underway, says it's critical to have next summer's schedule firmed up as soon as possible. Having already had this summer's plans thrown into disarray by the sinking, the big international outfits aren't likely to stick around waiting for B.C. Ferries to figure out 2007. These guys fill in their calendars a good year in advance.

"The tour operators will look for other destinations," Petryk said.

Still, he figures the ferry service is doing the best it can with what it has. "We have to be understanding of the complexity of the decisions they have to make." No matter how they stretch and juggle, they're one ship short.

Times Colonist (Victoria)

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Major shipbuilder too busy for BC Ferries
April 26, 2006

B.C.'s largest shipbuilder has withdrawn from the bidding to replace the province's northern ferries, saying it's got too much other work to make the deadline.

The Washington Marine Group said the timeline is too tight, with its Vancouver and Victoria shipyards working to capacity with other contracts.

The decision to withdraw from the bidding contract for three new ferries has upset the shipyard workers union, which fears the loss of future jobs.

George McPherson who heads the Shipyard General Workers' Federation, said his members would rather have the assurance of one large contract rather than a series of smaller projects.

"We've always done work with BC Ferries. That's been our lifeline in this province since WAC Bennett started this thing back in the '60s. And now our major shipyard has said, 'We're not going to do that work anymore.'"

Washington Marine Group CEO Steve Frasher said he understands the union has an emotional attachment to BC Ferries, but said it's not relevant to the company's business.

"The unions are still back in a decade-old idea about how work should be coming to them. In the last two years we have been very successful in getting business in our shipyards."

Meanwhile, Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon said the fact the company is too busy to bid on the northern ferries contract is "good news and more reaffirmation that the economy is strong."

The Washington Marine Group built vessels for BC Ferries until a few years ago, when the Campbell government said it wasn't in the running to build three new Super C-class vessels.

Both the company and the union lobbied extensively to reverse the decision, but were unsuccessful. Those ferries are now being built in a German shipyard.

CBC News

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Falcon says the NDP sending mixed messages regarding new ferries
April 26, 2006

Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon says the NDP is lost at sea when it comes to building two new ferries for the north coast.

This as B.C. Ferries looks to send the contract for the new vessels offshore.

New Democrat MLA Maurine Karagianis is upset the company has moved up the timeline for building the new ferries to 2008, causing B.C. based Washington Marine Group to pull out of the running. ‘The timeline that's been given to Washington Marine Group is unrealistic and unfortunately what we're seeing is now more work going to be leaving British Columbia,” Karagianis said.

Karaginais says the timeline should be extended, but Kevin Falcon is not impressed. “Getting into the theatre of the absurd when it comes to the NDP,” Falcon said.

Falcon says the NDP is sending mixed messages on the issue. “Somebody in that party n “Somebody in that party needs to show some leadership and decide where they stand, I'll tell you where this government stands, we want new ferries built, we want them built as quickly as we can,” Falcon said.

But Karagianis says there's no guarantee a foreign firm can meet the deadline either.

AM980 CKNW

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B.C. Ferries hopes to have final word on replacement vessel
April 26, 2006

VANCOUVER -- B.C. Ferries say it hopes to have final word on a replacement vessel for the northern routes within the next month.

President, David Hahn says they've identified a several used ships in Europe capable of handling our coastal waters and is optimistic he'll be able to make some sort of announcement soon. “We're working pretty hard on that and hopefully in the next 30-days we'll be able to get something really nailed down solid to bring some certainty back into the business,” Hahn said.

This replacement vessel would be in service for the 2007 season.

Tour operators say they need to know now, what service will be in place for next year so they can plan their business accordingly.

Hahn was speaking on the Bill Good Show on CKNW.

AM980 CKNW

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Business feeling ferry loss
By Teresa BirdGazette staff
May 11 2006

North Island tourism operators are bracing for fallout from the reduced ferry service from Port Hardy to Prince Rupert this summer.

“It’s been devastating news,” says Treena Smith, manager of the Port Hardy Chamber of Commerce. “The season will be impacted dramatically.”

That’s because the Queen of Prince Rupert, the ferry replacing the Queen of the North that sunk in March, is much smaller.

There are no passenger accommodations on board, says Smith, and with only one vessel for the whole coast the schedule allows for only two trips a week from Port Hardy – about half the trips last year.

North Island businesses that cater to tourists are already feeling the pinch, and the next two weeks will be telling, say business owners.

“It doesn’t look too negative yet,” says IV Villani, owner of the Quarterdeck Inn in Port Hardy. He says he has had three bus tours cancelled, and they are the mainstay of his summer business with about 40 tours staying at his establishment every year.

“One tour company has confirmed they are going ahead, but another one is still in discussions with BC Ferries,” said Villani. “We should hear in a few days.”

Mary Borrowman at Stubbs Island Whale Watching in Telegraph Cove says they have had some cancellations, but she is also waiting to see what happens in the next two weeks.

“Tour operators are now working on rebooking (ferry passage) and if they can’t rebook, they will cancel,” says Borrowman. But Borrowman feels the real problem is the long-term effects of reduced ferry service on the North Island and the entire province.

“Travel and tour operators, because of the ferry situation, are going to market other places in 2007,” predicts Borrowman. “It’s going to take a very long time to get that business back to B.C.”
Borrowman says the big challenge will be innovative marketing to attract tourists, especially Canadians to the North Island.

Smith agrees.

“This is a real wake up call,” says Smith. “We could curl up and whine, or we can find other ways to attract people here. It’s so beautiful here. We have so much to offer and it’s time we let the world know it.”

Putting action to those words, Smith is working with Tourism Vancouver Island to give tourists other reasons to come to the North Island.

“We have a wealth of activities here, so it’s a matter of creating some very attractively-priced packages we can market down Island, in the Lower Mainland and Alberta – you know, ‘Escape the Urban Rush’.

“Over that next two weeks, that’s our focus. It needs to be done right away.”

North Island Gazette

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Port Edward tourism takes a hit after ferry sinking
May 16, 2006

Port Edward, B.C. -- The impact on tourism due to the sinking of the Queen of the North is already being felt at the North Pacific Historic Fishing Village in Port Edward.

The Cannery, a top tourist attractions on the North Coast, has had to cut its hours because fewer ferry runs mean fewer customers.

Manager Karen Ljungh said the cannery will be closed every Monday, losing $22,000, because of the cancellation of 28 tours due to cuts in service by B.C. Ferries.

Normally, boats travelling between Port Hardy and Prince Rupert run every second day.

With only the Queen of Prince Rupert on the run, that service is now down to two a week.

The Globe and Mail / CP

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