BCBusiness

nik wEsT Why does bC Ferries matter to the province and its economy? We are a lifeline to many, many communities. We're the only scheduled service in or out, and so we occupy a critical place in the functioning of a community. We have a responsibility to live up to the trust they place in us to deliver reliable transporta- tion to allow their communities to be viable. How has the corporation changed since you first joined in 2004? We've been focused on safe, reli- able and ecient services. The system was not suciently reli- able when [Mike Corrigan and I] got here, from our view, and we've worked very hard on that. We've spent $2.1 billion on new infrastructure since 2004. In the 10 years before 2004, about $1 billion was spent. That's not to decry what went on before. There were constraints under the Crown corporation model. The com- pany was up against schools, roads and hospitals at Treasury Board. Under the new model, we don't have those constraints. We raise our own money, and we prioritize the investments into the ferry system. How financially sound is the ferry service? We're just coming o† our best year ever in terms of net earn- ings. Trac is up, tourism is strong—the system has never been busier. Average annual utilization on our ‰eet this year FUN FACT in 2002, when his wife went into labour at their rio de janeiro apartment, collins delivered their second son M ark Collins grew up in a ferry-dependent community on a ferry-dependent island: St. John's, Newfoundland. Dur- ing winters in the 1970s, the president and CEO of British Columbia Ferry Services Inc. recalls, store shelves in the provincial capital would empty as ice kept ships away. That experience helps shape Collins's approach to leading one of the world's largest ferry companies. Last April he succeeded Mike Corrigan, who recruited him to BC Ferries in 2004. Collins began his trans- portation career as an aircraft maintenance technician. Before completing a BA in marine geography at St. Mary's Univer- sity in Halifax, he went to sea as a marine engineer for shipping companies. Going on to earn an MBA from UBC in 1992, Collins joined the marine manufactur- ing division of Rolls-Royce PLC, rising to president of its Italian and Brazilian operations. He arrived at BC Ferries just as Gordon Campbell's Liber- als were turning the Crown corporation into a privately run, government-owned business. After almost nine years as VP, engineering, Collins left brie‰y to head technical services for Montreal-based shipping giant CSL Group Inc., returning in 2014. When he took the helm, the new NDP government was campaigning on a promise to cut ferry fares that have climbed more than 30 per cent on some routes over the past decade. Mark Collins As he charts a course between connecting communities and boosting efficiency, the new head of BC Ferries must also work with a provincial government that wants lower fares by Nick Rockel THE CoNvERSATIoN will probably be the highest it's ever been. But we always need to be cognizant that your best year should not be taken to be your average year. Since we were restructured in 2004, [we had] about eight pretty tough years where we under-earned. We always had positive net earnings, but they were far below target. And because we invested in those years, now we need some strong years to help us pay our debt, to continue our investment pro- gram into the future. The new government has pledged to reduce ferry fares, but how inevitable were hikes over the past several years? The previous government's public policy was to keep their invest- ment in the ferry service essentially ‰at, constant year-over-year. Which means that as operating costs rose, primarily due to fuel and labour and capital costs— or amortization, because we dECEMBER/JAnuARy 2018 BCBusiness 19 rising Tide after some lean years following the 2008-09 financial crisis, bc Ferries' net earnings (in millions) are looking ship-shape sOuRCE: BC FERRiEs 2014 2015 2016 2017 $25.5 $41.4 $64.8 $87.9

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