More On The BC Ferries Commisioner's Report

AllTheScrutinyThatFits

WeAreAllIzzyStoneNowVille

Here's something else you haven't heard from the CorpMedia regarding that report that savages the now departed darling of the puffed-up punditry, Mr. David Hahn.

And it comes from the master mariner that blogs over at Tidal Station:

"...What grabbed me instantly, however, was the graph on page 18 of the report. From 2004 to 2011 the cost of maintenance has been virtually unchanged. That, in an environment where inflation has been driving costs up at a little over 2.3 percent per year.

If BC Ferries was carrying out the same level of fleet and terminal maintenance today that they were before they were flipped over to a profit model the cost of maintenance should have increased. Even if there were efficiencies, it would have been impossible to maintain ships to a high standard of reliability and safety without a scaled increase in maintenance costs.

The first thing to go when a shipping company cheaps out on maintenance is quality control. Inspection falls by the wayside. Small things go unnoticed. Pins are left out and nuts are not torqued down..."

So.

When pins are left out and nuts are torqued down....

Is that when ferries start drifting over docks and/or crashing....errrr....landing, 'hard', when docking?

****

Remind me again.

When was it, exactly, in that reign of the 'Straight-Talker', that the trouble-making safety officer Captain Bowland 'left' BC Ferries?

Oh ya, I remember now.

It was back in the first-third (i.e. 2006), just after the sinking of the Queen of the North, as reported at the time by The Globe's Mark Hume:

VANCOUVER -- Amid a growing debate about safety issues, David Hahn, the president of B.C. Ferries, has flatly contradicted key allegations made by a safety expert who says his warnings were ignored prior to a disastrous sinking.

On Tuesday, (former saftey officer) Darin Bowland filed a statement of claim in the Supreme Court of British Columbia in a wrongful-dismissal suit, in which he said senior management at the company ignored his warnings that "there was a strong likelihood of catastrophic incidents" if safety practices were not immediately improved...

{snippety doo-dah}

...Although B.C. Ferries has not yet filed a statement of defence, Mr. Hahn responded to Mr. Bowland's charges yesterday while being interviewed by talk-show host Bill Good on Vancouver radio station CKNW.

"We reject all of his allegations," Mr. Hahn said. "I think what's interesting [is] he never set foot on the Queen of the North during his time here, never was on the Queen of Prince Rupert [a sister ship], was never in Prince Rupert or Port Hardy on any business from B.C. Ferries....

Talkin' 'straight'?

Hmmmmm....

I am not so sure that word means what the puffed-up punditry (and the water carriers) think (or would have us think) it means.

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