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B.C. Ferries has announced that it will implement a new fuel surcharge to help offset the company’s continued rising cost of marine fuel.

Effective August 1st 2008, a fuel surcharge of 10.3 per cent will be applied for major routes connecting Vancouver Island to the Lower Mainland. The current vehicle charge of $43.00 will therefore rise to $47.15 and the passenger fare will increase from $13 to $14.25 one way.

On minor routes servicing the Southern and Northern Gulf Islands, the price hike is substantially higher at 17.6 percent. It currently costs $28.60 for a vehicle and $7.25 per person on the southern Gulf Islands route.

On the main route servicing Horseshoe Bay to Langdale, a 9.2 percent charge will be applied from the start of August. Passengers will therefore pay $12.30 for a round-trip ticket, whilst a vehicle will cost $43.00.

B.C. Ferries’ northern routes will not be subject to a fuel surcharge at this time.

In a statement, the company said its annual bunker cost had been 45.9 million in 2003. According to recent estimates, B.C. Ferries projects its 2008/09 fuel costs to be approximately $140 million.

Speaking about the price hike, company spokesperson Deborah Marshall said "We burn about 120 million litres a year and unfortunately the price has just kept escalating."

Deputy commissioner Sheldon Stoilen said the immediate implementation of a fuel surcharge was necessary as it was preferrable to larger hikes at a later date.

"If we did nothing, we'd be looking at significantly higher fuel surcharges later in the year, and that really penalizes future customers of B.C. Ferries at the expense of current customers," said Stoilen.

British Colombia Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon has said that the province may even have to reduce service in off-peak periods as a consequence of the increase in fuel costs.

"I'm not talking in the summer time, but in the non-peak periods in the fall and winter we may have to look at frequency of service," he said. "That may be one way we could sort of tackle this issue, without obviously eliminating service for people."

"We just have to figure out how we try and deal with this in a manner that is sensitive to the fact that there's not unlimited dollars available to shield communities entirely from this rather extraordinary situation in world oil prices," said Falcon.