In Glade and Harrop-Procter, the recent Kootenay Lake ferry strike created a strong sense of community solidarity.
"Sometimes an external threat is a very powerful unifier, and that has been true here," said Ina Pockrass, the chair of the Harrop-Procter Ferry Society.
Anne Mowat, who heads the Glade Ferry Society, echoes this.
"Our folks have come together, really, with great spirit and great commitment," she said.
But both communities – each connected to the rest of the world only by a cable ferry – say there is much to be done to avoid a repeat, and they are already hard at work.
Initially the Kootenay Lake ferry strike that started on Nov. 3, 2024, applied only to the Kootenay Lake route between Balfour and Kootenay Bay. But in December the B.C. General Employees Union, which represents 80 members who work on the three routes, applied to the Labour Relations Board (LRB) to include the Harrop-Procter and Glade cable ferries in the job action meant to pressure the employer, Western Pacific Marine, during collective bargaining.
In any labour dispute, the LRB determines the definition of essential service. In this case, the union wanted the number of sailings reduced, with only specific passengers allowed as essential.
This created panic in the two communities because they depend on the ferries for most aspects of life including business, employment, family connections, shopping, medical appointments and emergency services.
The LRB at first agreed on Dec. 27 that union-requested restrictions would come into effect Jan. 2. But before that date arrived the board put off the decision until February and then ruled against the union. So the two ferries continued their regular schedule: the Glade ferry (a three-minute crossing) on demand from 5 a.m. to 2:20 a.m., and the Harrop ferry (a five-minute crossing) on demand 24-7.
The strike ended on April 10 as a result of the work of provincially appointed special mediator Vince Ready.
But for most of December and January, the two communities were on a knife edge.
"When the decision of the B.C. Labour Relations Board came down on Dec. 27, our communities were absolutely shocked," said Mowat. "We realized that we don't have the same protections that people served by highways and bridges have. We like to say ferries are floating highways. You cannot blockade a road or a bridge in the course of negotiating, as a tactic, in the course of negotiating a labour contract."
Melinda Foot of Harrop-Procter says her community is much calmer now, but the alarm during the strike was intense.
"There was a sense of panic that comes with the threat of being cut off from everything," she said. "Everything was very scary and very stressful."
Now both communities are working for changes to prevent a repeat.
One avenue, Pockrass says, is for the government to amend the Transportation Act to make all 14 B.C. inland ferries essential services, and to require that their schedules may not be reduced during a strike.
She says new legislation would not be necessary, and the issue could be solved with an amendment to the current Transportation Act.
Pongrass said the Harrop-Procter and Glade groups are in the early stages of forming a provincial inland ferry coalition to advance this cause. The Regional District of Central Kootenay has already asked the province to make this change, and a resolution will be formally presented on behalf of Kootenay-Boundary local governments at the annual conference of the Union of B.C. Municipalities in September.
The second goal of both groups is to get a seat at the table during any Labour Relations Board deliberations related to the ferries. When the LRB made its various decisions about what is an essential service and what is not, there were only two parties allowed to appear before the board: the company and the union.
"I'm a retired lawyer, and I was shocked," Pockrass said. "I thought, of course it's an essential service, of course we have a voice. We're the ones who aren't going to be able to visit elderly relatives or get a grandchild to a hockey game.
"But that wasn't true, and we had to raise tens of thousands of dollars (for legal fees) to try to just get our voices heard as a community. And we did it, but it was not fair."
Even though the strike is ostensibly over, Ready's report has not yet been released and a new agreement has not been signed by the union and management.
"We haven't had a community celebration yet," says Pockrass. "We want to, but there isn't a final decision yet rendered. So there remains a little bit of an existential risk that something could go sideways.
"We're hopeful it won't. We have made it really clear to people that once the strike is done, our work is not done."
Mowat says the Glade group feels the same way.
"It's just one step at a time, and if something doesn't work, well, we will continue to try other things."
