After nearly 30 years of service to the community, Ahousaht chief and council have made the difficult decision to sell their sea bus, the Ahousaht Pride.
Chief Councillor Curtis Dick said the sea bus needs to be sold because of the mounting debt it has been creating for the Nation.
“We need at least 16 passengers per trip just to break even and sometimes it leaves the dock with only one passenger,” Dick told Ha-Shilth-Sa.
The sea bus engines are in need of repair and the vessel has sat idle for about six months. The skipper and crew were laid off in early October.
“We hope to offer it for sale to someone local, if there’s interest,” Dick said.
The sea bus was purchased by the band in the early 1980s so that the community could have a reliable mode of transportation from Flores Island to Tofino. While its benefits are many, it has long been a financial drain on Ahousaht’s resources.
The Ahousaht Pride is a large vessel capable of carrying dozens of passengers along with thousands of pounds of freight. Passengers rely on it not only to get to and from the community but also to carry a week or two’s worth of family groceries back home. There are no grocery stores in Ahousaht.
It has been used in search and rescue missions, assisting the Canadian Coast Guard, and it has transported medical emergency patients, often on stretchers, to Tofino.
But Chief Dick believes there are now enough private water taxi operators in the community to cover the transportation needs of the community.
There are more than 10 private boat owners running water taxi businesses in the village and for the past six months they’ve picked up where the sea bus left off.
Some of the larger boats have enough space to accommodate stretchers in emergency situations.
When the weather is nice, like in summer, people like to take the small boats, Dick said. They gravitate back to the sea bus in the winter when wind storms make ocean travel more dangerous.
Chief Dick regrets having to sell the sea bus. He said that the topic has come up at many band meetings and council has heard from members who wanted to keep the vessel for safety reasons, despite the financial liability it represents.
But the debt it has incurred to date outweighs the benefits of keeping the sea bus, especially now when private boat owners in the village can deliver the services.
The band is applying for funding to have the sea bus engines repaired before it goes up for sale.
