BC Ferries is under contract with , and receives payment from BC Ministry of Transportation to provide essential transportation services for people living in areas not served by a land link . That ' s one thing they do . BC Ferries provides both essential and unessential services . The evidence that they cater significantly to unessential , marketdriven , luxury services is everywhere . e . g . the BC Ferries Vacation Website ! This is not a bad thing . It ' s only bad when we pretend an unessential moneylosing sailing is essential and it ends up taking resources away from truly essential service . For example , there are BC islands that have no hospital and only emergency air ambulance service . Expensive ! Scary ! Vancouver Island has plenty of hospitals and emergency services . I think we can rationally discuss dropping a moneylosing late night Vancouver Island sailing that only 21 ! people use anyways to give a lessserviced island a similarly moneylosing sailing as a true life line . If you ' re stuck in Greater Vancouver late on a weeknight and need medical attention , you have options . Likewise if you ' re stuck in Nanaimo , you have options . Residents of small BC islands are icons of selfreliance but a trek to the emergency isn ' t an option or an extra 30 minute drive like it is for Van Islanders and mainlanders . I ' m only arguing that at some level of frequency , to be debated , we exceed a definition of essential , particularly between the mainland and Vancouver Island .