loading . . . Gumboot Nation: First she heard of it On a late Saturday afternoon so beautiful it felt like a fever dream after six months of winter, my husband puttered in the garden, transforming our yard into pure magic. I sat with my laptop and a light shawl. Writing. Both of us, just doing our thing. The subject of my writing: our ferries.
BC Ferries CEO Nicolas Jimenez visited the SCRD last week. Short presentation. Q&A. Then he had a ferry to catch.
Most of it will be covered in this paper. But two things stayed with me.
The first: when Halfmoon Bay area director Justine Gabias asked who is ultimately accountable when service fails, Jimenez answered, “We’re a great place to start, but we don’t make the final decisions.” It depends, he said, on whether it’s operational, governance or investment. Nobody holds all the cards.
The second: Elphinstone area director Donna McMahon raised medical travel, people being discharged from Vancouver hospitals, trying to get home to the Sunshine Coast. Karen Tindle, BC Ferries’ director of customer care, responded. “This is the first I’m hearing of this. I’m really glad that I attended the meeting so that I could hear that this was an issue.”
First she’d heard of it.
Now, some of you may know me as your volunteer community columnist. Others, as a lady with semi-hoarder-like tendencies softened by the coping mechanism of writing humour descriptions when cycling out of her hoarded treasures on Facebook Marketplace. All true. Here’s something else to know. I love numbers and am a technological tinkerer.
With enough passion and nerdity, it’s possible to synthesize a whole whack of information from the Sunshine Coast BC Ferries Complaints & Delays Facebook group in a relatively short amount of time. Every post, every comment, every like: 2,729 posts and comments over two years, scraped in less than an hour of my time. Here’s what it tells us.
Of the entries during that time, 554 are what I am coding as “high-stakes” –– flagged for serious life impact, 139 involve healthcare. A woman scrambling to book an MRI she’d waited a year for, only to find no medical travel reservations available. A senior carrying a toothbrush and medications because there’s “no guarantee you will get home.” A post with 622 likes describing being told only three medical emergencies get guaranteed boarding per sailing –– “so if you’re the fourth, you’re screwed.”
Is scraping and sitting in a spreadsheet the actual dorkiest thing you can do on a sunny afternoon? Possibly. But hey, at least I’m in the garden.
I did it not because I’m personally experiencing these high stakes grievances. I’m not. At all. And I used to be one in the “well, you chose to live here, so accept it” camp. What I’ve realized about that position? It’s pretty privileged. Easy to say when my work isn’t impacted, when I don’t require hospitalization or specialist care appointments. When I am able-bodied enough to walk to the village to get water during a hot multi-hour wait in Horseshoe Bay. So. I’ve changed my position. I know more now. And, I don’t have to personally experience the grievances to care about it, or to do something about it.
Here what’s hot in the Creek, no ferry required.
May 9 — Current Collective & Monty Montego and the Rocksteady Crew at Roberts Creek Legion. A double-header to shake off any remaining winter. Current Collective brings their eight-piece West Coast blend of reggae, funk, folk, and rock, followed by Monty Montego and the Rocksteady Crew paying warm tribute to late-60s Jamaican sounds — rich harmonies, bumping bass, and harmonious horns included.
May 15 — Aleksi Campagne at Roberts Creek Legion. Penguin Eggs and Roots Music Canada’s New Discovery of the Year, Aleksi Campagne is a Montreal-born fiddler-songwriter whose music is quietly stunning — violin, voice, and looping pedals layered into something that feels both ancient and completely alive. His debut album earned a Canadian Folk Music Award for French Songwriter of the Year, and 2026 has already brought him a first-place finish at Ma Première Place des Arts in Montreal. Fully bilingual, deeply rooted, and worth every penny.
Advance: members $15, guests $20. Door: members $20, guests $25. Doors at 8 p.m.
May 16 — Legion Fundraiser DJ Night with Pro Future at Roberts Creek Legion.
Dancing for a good cause. Details to come — watch the Legion socials. http://dlvr.it/TSRhLC
