The Fifth 'W'

WhyOhWhyOhWhy?
LoopholeVille

In this morning's post we obliquely laid out the who, what, where and when of the BC Ferries reservation boondoggle.

Paul Willcocks, who is extremely careful in attributing motives to any and all things nefarious, was, however, good enough to expedi(a)dite* matters and point the way to the fifth 'W' of journalism.

Which, of course is "why".

Why, indeed, would Mr. Hahn charge us $35 a roundtrip reservation?

Well, apparently, because he can.

According to Mr. Willcocks:

"BC Ferries is taking advantage of a large loophole left by the government when it restructured the operation.

The Ferries Commissioner is charged with regulating BC Ferries' rates and service to protect the public interest, recognizing government has given up control and the corporation has a monopoly.

But the legislation didn't include reservation fe(e)s in the charges subject to regulatory review."

And what's more, as long as BC Ferries and the Provincial government continue to ignore the Commisioner's requests for an explanation for their charges they can also state that there has been no significant increase in fares.

Got that?

Reservations are not fares.

And money out of your pocket is not cash.

Instead, just think of it as confetti.

Of the most golden kind, of course.

____
Mr. W., the answer to your previous request is buried within the word marked with the asterisk. Went from $1200 direct from AC/United to $800 with the exact same flights and fare class with these folks.

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