Electric Ferry Service – Main Motion (Items A–C)

Statement Watch

good evening commissioners thank you for having me here to speak to you my name is darren perera i am the ceo and co-founder of circle fairies since last year when the vancouver city council passed a motion for city staff to work with us with many thanks to council bligh um for the past one year we have been working with city staff engineers naval architects to reconfigure the harbor green dock not just for our ferry service but also for the public as well to make it welcoming for them with my background in the marine industry i'm a former captain of bc ferries i'm a current ship inspector as well i brought the operational lens to what we were doing I analyzed the configuration to make sure that the dock from the north to south works in the weather conditions. We talked about wakes, we talked about all weather, we talked about wind conditions, tidal effects. I look to make sure that the vessel coming into the dock will be optimal for operations. I also wanted to make sure that passenger safety management is integral to what we do. I'm looking at their safety. I'm looking at the security. I'm looking at accessibility. I looked at everything from an operational point of view, and the configuration really works. I'm very pleased with what we've come up with. And we also engage with First Nations. We've engaged with Musqueam. We've engaged with . We've engaged with Squamish. And they've been very supportive in what we are doing. And we're very grateful for their support and guidance. And we will continue to engage with them as we go along. The idea behind what we're doing is to introduce a zero emission vessel into Vancouver. Being zero emission, you reduce greenhouse gases. You reduce the carbon footprint of people who are coming in from Bowen Island and Gibsons. You're giving them a different option where they're not stuck in traffic jams. This is going to improve connectivity, not just for Vancouver, but for the region all over BC as well. So I look forward to your decision, and I'm very grateful for being here. Thank you very much.

Statement Watch

Great. Good evening, commissioners. My name is Callum Campbell. I'm co-founder and CEO of Circle Ferries, and I support this motion. Over the past year, my colleagues and I have had a chance to work with park board staff and city staff to explore this opportunity for Harbour Green and this electric ferry service that can connect Vancouver to coastal communities. And we've fully leaned into this opportunity, bringing our own resource to the table. We've engaged with some Vancouver-based leading marine engineers, naval architects, and BC Hydro to assess the technical feasibility of reconfiguring the dock. we've also worked really closely with staff to understand the history of the site the challenges over time also the financial and potent and public benefits of using the harbour green dock for this landing site we've also worked with a local architecture firm to bring all of this together into a design that balances sustainability public benefits and viable operations we're bringing this forward now as a design that'll

allows for a ferry landing, but just importantly maintains and improves public access to the dock. It's safer, it's more accessible, and it has a new viewing platform connected to the seawall, helping to revitalize the space for the public. More broadly, this decision tonight helps create more a connected city while offering real benefits for local residents. Through an all-electric passenger-only ferry service, we can introduce new connections from Coal Harbour to Gibsons and Bowen Island, building on a transportation network that Vancouver has developed over the past two decades and extending it over the water. We're proud of the work that we've done with staff to get to this point, and we appreciate the opportunity to be here tonight. And we're excited about this very service, tailor-made for Vancouver. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Do any commissioners have clarification questions? Commissioner Verdi. I just want to understand this a little bit better. How does the energy work? Like, how do we get the electricity? Is it all just through BC Hydro, and you guys pay them directly?

Yeah, thank you for the question. So we need to run some electricity cable lines from the BC Hydro grid through the park to the charge barge. The charge barge itself is essentially floating stored energy. It's a barge filled with batteries. So you can trickle charge those batteries 24-7 from the grid so that when the vessel comes alongside, you take that charge from the barge to the vessel. So essentially what that does is it minimizes the amount of power that we need from BC Hydro. sorry, minimizes the amount of power we need at any one time. So BC Hydro is very supportive of the project because for them, they're selling electricity at a steady rate. They always know it's going to be the same rate.

Any further questions? Thank you very much.

Statement Watch

Thank you for, Commissioners, for hearing my comments. My name is Neil Prakash and I'm here on behalf of the rowing section of the Vancouver Rowing Club. I'll just start off by saying that we are not opposed to this proposal. We recognize the importance of water-based transportation but we do have a few key considerations that we'd like you to take into consideration. For those of you who don't know, the rowing club sits on the northwest end of Coal Harbour, and we're celebrating our 140th year this year. So we've been using the waterway for quite a long time. It's a part of Vancouver's community, and it supports recreation, health, and community participation across a wide range of users, all the way from juniors to para-rowers to seniors. We currently row up to the west end of the Harbour Green Dock, which marks our one-kilometre training course. And so, of course, we're concerned that any changes in configurations may alter that course. The first opportunity that we've had to see the plan was tonight, and it doesn't look like that's going to happen, so we're quite happy about that. We would, however, like to be consulted on the process moving forward so that we can basically give our map of how we use that area to the proponents so that they can take us into consideration. As well, we would also like to understand how the ferry traffic may affect wake conditions. We have, you know, our boats are really low to the water, and so... surprise wake can cause safety concerns for us and so we would just like to get a better understanding of how they intend to operate and whether or not that will affect us or not so we can continue to provide a safe rowing environment for our members. And we are happy to work with staff to map out our course and identify any constraints early on in the process to make sure that we don't have any conflicts. And, yeah, we've been here for a long time, so we hope you'll hear our concerns. Thank you.

Great. Thank you very much. Commissioners, any clarification questions? Speaker? Commissioner Verity has a clarification question for you. In addition to the wake, do you see any other obstacles that might be a problem?

Uh, no, I don't. I mean, like, I think, um, maybe, maybe like clear demarcations of, of where the public dock boat traffic can go and where the extent of the course, uh, for, for ourselves is would be probably a good thing to, to help in everybody's safety, essentially.

I'm just hoping through the chair, we could, uh, ask staff to make sure that their opinion is incorporated. I believe staff are listening at the time, and I trust that they're taking these notes down.

Thank you. Thank you.

Statement Watch

Thank you, Chair and commissioners. I've written to you before about accessibility. This place is not accessible. It took me nine minutes to walk from the bus stop at Denman and Pendle to here. And after the civic election, you'll get a letter from the parliamentary secretary for accessibility asking you to move the meetings to accessible place. And now Harbour Green Park is also being... taken away accessibility. The city and TransLink just took away the bus stops at Pender and Butte and Pender and Tolo. So how are the passengers going to get to the dock with suitcases or who knows what they're carrying on when we have people who don't understand what accessibility is? And I mean, the city has a bylaw number 13323, which is not in your package for some reason, but that's the rough bylaw. And section 319 read, an owner of a seaplane, commercial vessel, or charter boat must not cause, permit, or allow loading or unloading of passengers to and from that seaplane, commercial vessel, or charter boat on a city wharf. So... You know, the city is, well, the problem is that we want public transit. We don't want private transit. And we, I mean, most of the people, the problem in BC that it's operated halfway. Some things are public and some things are private, which makes a whole bad connections between between the different companies and there's no fair integration, there is all kinds of problems and that's something that the provincial government will have to mandate and even though you might think otherwise, it's really the province that decide what's private and what's public and how transportation system in the province operate. You know, like I did an audit about four years ago of all the Parks Board facilities regarding the bus service, and there was nothing done because only Commissioner John Ervin was interested. But that's what should be done because accessibility is very important. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much, David. Commissioner Herr has a question for you. Thank you for coming.

I've got a couple of questions since you've done your homework. So what section were you talking about of the bylaw?

13323, yeah. Okay. It's the bylaw, yeah.

And your concern is that there's not enough or very good accessibility to this harbor green?

Well, it's the whole system. We can't have both private and public companies in our transportation system. It just doesn't work. And we have lots of proof of that. And the P3 model doesn't work for transportation, for example. And, you know, so there's been reports written about it. There's videos on YouTube about privatization of transportation and how bad it is for the public.

What is your primary concern here? Why is it bad? Because I think what they're proposing is a better and quicker way to be able to move between...

two bodies you know some people live on bone well in washington states for example they have the orca card the smart card and you can use it everywhere on the ferries on the buses on the trains we don't have that here you know okay thank you yeah

Statement Watch

Yeah, sorry for my name. Not easy to sort of get out on the fly. Yeah, I'm Shane Oleksiuk. I'm here maybe in three kind of capacities, sort of citizen, architect, and on the sort of design team for the proponent here. So I want to talk about maybe all three of those things. Also, thank you for your time tonight, and I'm personally quite happy to be here. I've never been in this building. I've always been looking for an excuse to come out to this part of the park and enjoy this beautiful room. So thank you, and I know you have a long night ahead of you, so I'll try to be as brief as I can be. Our company, actually, our office is actually just around the corner from this on the seawall. It's kind of serendipitous the way it all sort of... showed up in our world, but we, two of our partners, the B and the P in our company, live on Bowen, talk a lot about ferries, talk a lot about planning, talk a lot about the seawall. Always kind of hoped that someone would come up with this idea, and then all of a sudden Circle came up with this idea, and we immediately wanted to kind of be involved in that. So we saw it as an opportunity for a really nice public and private amenity that could emerge on the seawall that... I think Vancouver's really lucky, and it has this beautiful continuous seawall that goes all the way around. But in many ways, it's kind of uniform. It's not that differentiated. So this is for us a really nice way for us to see a new way for us to participate with the seawall and parks. I think in our world as architects, busy is good. This could make things busier. Change is good. Like our office is sitting on the seawall in a building that was built 20 years ago that feels like it was there forever, but it's kind of amazing how quickly these things kind of change. And variety is good. So we think this produces all of those things. Yeah, and I think the way that I frame it in my head is this is the kind of thing that if it got taken away and it wasn't there, everyone would be really, really disappointed. So so why not like find a way to sort of make it happen there anyways, so That was it.

Thank you very much Thank you very much Shane any questions. Oh Commissioner Herr has a question for you Thank you for coming.

I love this concept. I think the more people travel within BC, I mean, our province is beautiful. And I know a lot of people live on the islands or away, and they want to be able to access downtown as quick as possible. I think my concern is the disparity between haves and have-nots, price points. Is there going to be a pass, like a monthly pass? You know what I mean? some people are going to be able to afford this and others are not going to be. So that's my biggest concern here. One thing is accessibility location-wise. Another one is price point-wise. Are you guys considering all those points as well? Yeah. I'm just an architect.

So I won't be able to speak to, I think, the financial model, but I would expect that they would need to be competitive to their competitors.

Okay.

and it's on them as a private enterprise to make sure that they can operate their business within those confines.

But thank you for coming out.

Yeah, thanks.

Statement Watch

Very nice to be here with you all, colleagues and commissioners. And I'm pleased to speak tonight about the Circle Electric Ferry proposal and the opportunity it presents, not just for Vancouver, but the broader coastal region. One year ago, I was very pleased, and kudos to Darren and Callum for bringing this project forward. To my attention, actually, I guess it was October of 2024, and then later, February 7th, a joint press conference, actually, with commissioners here in the room. I was just trying to remember who was all there. I'm pretty sure Bastiavansky, Commissioner Christensen... You did not make it there, Commissioner Jensen. Okay. Well, anyways, it was the coldest press conference, I think, ever on record. And it was an exciting moment for our city. We shared a vision. A regular all-electric passenger ferry connecting downtown Vancouver, Bowen Island and Gibsons was service proposed to depart from Coal Harbour with Harbour Green Dock as a key landing point and a landing point that has before been a landing point for a Bowen Island ferry many years ago. So that vision was grounded in a simple reality that our region is growing and our transportation system is not keeping up. We are seeing increasing congestion, especially at key bottlenecks like Lionsgate Bridge, Secondary, Stanley Park Causeway. And right now, those connections are strained. And we know that there's been more people who have moved away during the pandemic from the center of downtown, but are getting called back into work, not to mention from an economic development perspective. entertainment, recreation, doctor's offices, appointments, access to healthcare, and things like that. And so what it is, driving more traffic to the roads, to the existing transportation network. So this is why this proposal becomes so important from a city building perspective. An all-electric passenger-only ferry offers a clean, efficient, and reliable alternative, one that aligns with our climate goals while improving daily life for thousands of people, and the projected impact is significant. So this is real progress on congestion, on emissions, and on affordability. And from a city perspective, this matters deeply. So as Commissioners Bastiovansky and Christensen noted at the time, I did go back and watch, this is a potential win-win-win, supporting commuter service, expanding recreational use, and improving the overall functionality of the waterfront. And it's important that it comes at no cost to the city and the park board with vessels and infrastructure funded by the proponent and his partners. Vancouver is a coastal city, and yet our transportation system has not yet fully embraced that identity. And this proposal helps to change that. It supports a future where getting around our region is cleaner, faster, and more connected. And of course, we need to proceed thoughtfully and there have been some opportunities identified. But this really is an opportunity to rethink how we move. It's more than a ferry. It's how we connect across the region for all. And I'm very grateful to be part of a project, having brought the motion forward and worked with commissioners and worked with the proponent as demonstration of how the city and park board can work collaboratively for the benefit of all residents. Thank you.

Thank you.

for you thank you thank you chair and thank you Councillor Bligh I deeply appreciated you bringing this forward you know this this type of innovation really does fit really well within park board so I recognize I appreciate that you recognize the value in the park board Yeah, I'm allowed to say thank you to the people that come up. Thank you very much to you as well. My question is, so we've talked about this video doc, but can you give us a bit of a grand vision? Like, we have water everywhere, so couldn't we have docks elsewhere across the city? Maybe you can tell us a little bit about some other locations that we're connecting?

Well, I'll say this without, thank you for the question, and you're absolutely right. And I say this without any direct decision-making power in. Circle Ferries or West Vancouver or North Vancouver or YVR or Sanok or Granville Island, these are all independent entities and jurisdictions and stakeholders that I think could be part of a broader transportation network. And in speaking to previous mayors of the city, it was really interesting to me that while a lot of work has been done over the many decades, one of the things we've never managed to do is properly activate our marine transportation system like other major cities. metropolitan cities, harbour cities globally, Singapore, Australia, San Francisco. And Vancouver really, other than our wonderful and beloved aqua bus and aqua ferries, is really limited. And the sea bus that for 40 years has just gone back and forth without any innovation in technology. Now we see the hollow ferries, right, very, very well. sort of used, and also a good example of where private and public can come together and work very well. And there's huge popularity around the Hello Ferries, so this is another option for marine transportation that's going to connect very close communities in Gibsons and Bowen And for the city of Vancouver, it's about reducing traffic, increasing economic development, and accessibility to our central business district in the downtown core.