Sidney ferry has been a stimulus package since 1922
0 Comment | Email | Print | 333 views Jack Darnton | Anacortes American
February 04, 2009 - 08:00 AM
Last Updated: February 24, 2009 - 02:28 PM

The economic impact and tourism-building potential of the international ferry fun between Anacortes and Sidney, B. C., should be cause for celebration. So what’s new?

That was the story more than 80 years ago when Canadian tourism officials arranged for summer service on the scenic run. As reporter Elaine Walker found in today’s extensive review of the Sidney run’s history, the new service was a success immediately — and the start of something big. Since then, millions of passengers have boarded the ferries and spent millions upon millions of dollars throughout Northwest Washington and Vancouver Island.

Fast forward to 2009 and a legislative session in Olympia where lawmakers once again are considering eliminating the Sidney run. Staring at a budget deficit of $6 billion or so, they are preparing to make major cuts in state spending.

At the same time, as the recession deepens, the governor and others are readying an ambitious stimulus package at the state level, while President Obama is looking at $1 trillion in “shovel-ready” public works projects — with the state hoping to get a nice chunk of that.

Seems to us that the international ferry run does everything that these sudden stimulus projects would do — and more. It’s not a one-time bang for the buck. It’s already in place. It has no startup costs, no extra administrative paper shuffling.

The numbers from the recent E.D. Hovee & Company study are impressive. The international run provided 1,470 jobs in 2006, pumping $30 million in payroll into the regional economy and generating $4.6 million in taxes that year.

Talk about a stimulus.

As the state budget process picks up steam, lawmakers would do well to remember the international run is a net gain to the state. Axing it would put people out of work, curtail tourism and make a bad situation worse.

The Sidney ferry has always been about tourism and the economic boost travelers give the region. The strategy that worked in 1922 remains sound today.





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