Southern Southeast Alaska’s lack of ferry connection to British Columbia has a solution: Hyder

Rows of pilings in Portland Canal stretch across the water near the shoreline in Hyder, Alaska. The commentary author would like to see a new ferry terminal built on the canal. (Photo by Richard Jackson/Getty Images Plus)

Since Alaska apparently cannot agree to a deal with Prince Rupert as a ferry destination, I suggest we go to Hyder, Alaska, as a destination. It has been a port of call in the past , which many people remember using. It is close, much closer than Bellingham. Alaska will own it, not Canada or Bellingham. It will cost travelers far less in fares than the $2,000-plus one-way cost for a car and 2 passengers going to Bellingham. It will not require a ship equipped to meet the requirements of the Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea. Our customs agents will be allowed to carry weapons. It can be built with American steel rather than Canadian steel. It connects directly to British Columbia Highways 37 and 16, both of which Canada keeps open year-round. And finally, there is federal money available to build a dock and terminal in Hyder.

The only problem is that the Alaska Department of Transportation proposes instead to build a second dock and terminal at Cascade Point/Berner’s Bay near Juneau, even though Juneau already has a fine dock and terminal at Auke Bay, near Juneau.

For whatever reason, DOT thinks it is more important for Juneau folks to have two choices in how to get to Haines every day than it is for Ketchikan and southern Southeast folks to get to the mainland road system at all. It is certainly nice for Juneau to have such convenient and inexpensive choices, but what about the rest of us here in the southern region? Don’t we get nice choices as well? Apparently not. When we want to get to Smithers or Terrace in British Columbia, we must go first to Bellingham, which is 750 miles south. If we want to go east to Idaho, Montana, or Calgary, we must first go to Bellingham. The solution to our problem of no access to the B.C. road system at all is a ferry dock and terminal in Hyder, Alaska! This is not rocket science. It just takes money, which Alaska has, thanks to federal transportation money that is, in fact, available.

I challenge DOT to state exactly why it would be better to build the proposed dock and terminal at Cascade Point than to build a dock and terminal at Hyder. We have not had access to Prince Rupert in years and probably will never get access again, so we need a ferry at Hyder, and we are waiting for an answer.

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