Family of Victoria Harbour Ferry owner launch petition seeking new agreement with GVHA

The daughter of the owner of Victoria Harbour Ferry has launched a petition to keep the iconic service in place.

Kristin Hobbis, daughter of Barry Hobbis, launched the change.org petition after the company announced they would shut down on July 1 due to “an unreasonable operating agreement” being imposed by the Greater Victoria Harbour Authority.

“Their action has forced the company to stop operating after 30 years,” reads the petition.

For their part, the GVHA stated that the harbour ferry company has “refused to sign” the agreement, and can therefore no longer use the docks at Fisherman’s Wharf and the Inner Harbour.

“For the past month, our management team had worked with Victoria Harbour Ferry to establish an agreement, without success,” reads a statement from the GVHA.

“As a sign of good faith, we allowed Victoria Harbour Ferry to restart their operations while we worked through the agreement process.”

Hobbis’ petition calls for the creation of a new “fair and reasonable” agreement to allow the company time to recover from the effects of the pandemic.

It also aims to compel the GVHA to restore the harbour ferry’s access to the downtown Victoria docks.

Created three days ago, the petition asks for 1,500 signatures. As of the time of publication, it has garnered over 1,480.