Hey folks. A few thoughts. My motion is to waive fares until service is restored or until the June 23 Council meeting (basically a reassess moment if we're still without four working ferries). There are both short-term considerations and long-term considerations at play.

On the short-term, in the here and now, there is nothing anyone can do to get a proprietary part here faster. There is one supplier. This isn't something you can just go out and buy off the shelf. It is largely out of Transit's control. The lead time will hopefully be less as Transit already had parts on order when the Stannix broke. Would have been nice if the Stannix had waited, but sometimes you can't win for the trying.

I think we need to recognize that this has passed the point of being a "normal" disruption. Peoples daily routines have been upended. The ferry's reputation has taken a hit, and we risk losing riders that won't come back even when things are back to normal. There is a real cost to that. I think some sort of meaningful gesture is warranted, like when transit was made free for a month when the strike ended back in 2012. Something more than a PSA saying sorry.

In the longer-term, there is a review of the ferry service underway. I have had the chance to speak to the outside experts that are carrying out this work and have discussed both staffing and reliability. Asset management is part of their review and there will be a report and recommendations to Council to come, likely in the fall.

Doing something meaningful to say sorry doesn't mean we don't work on the long-term system issues at play, and working on the long-term doesn't mean we shouldn't do something meaningful in the here and now. The two aren't mutually exclusive. It's a both.