The mayor of Prince Rupert recently travelled to southeast Alaska, advocating for reopening the Alaska marine highway, which he says has been an ongoing concern since the Prince Rupert terminal closed in 2019.
Mayor Pond says that resolving the security and capacity issues that need to be addressed to restore ferry service between Prince Rupert and Ketchikan, Alaska, would be a strategic move. Pond said in a statement;
“It will strengthen cross-border collaboration and unlock new economic opportunities for both regions.”
The Prince Rupert terminal has been closed for six years now, due to aging and unusable infrastructure, and a stalemate over which country - and whose steel and labour - would be used to revitalize the terminal.
Community members have lamented the loss of the service- including Ocean Rutherford, Director for Area A for the North Coast Regional District, whose informative YouTube video explains the issue and value of the service in detail.
“Every year growing up, these three lanes would be full in the summertime of travelers on their annual pilgrimage north to Alaska. We haven’t had this for about five years now, through Covid and through other complications.”
Rutherford also recently got MP Ellis Ross interested in the project. He said the connection could be vital for the local economy;
“If we want the economy going, we’ve got to look at all our opportunities, including the ones that we’ve ignored for so long, like the Alaska Ferry Terminal out of Prince Rupert. If we don’t develop something like that, then the United States will build a ferry terminal up in Hyder, Alaska. There’ll be no need for any ferries to stop in Prince Rupert that are traveling, that usually use the Alaska Ferry Terminal in Prince Rupert. I mean, it’s a lot of these issues that are, that have been ignored, that I think that that British Columbia deserve, especially northern British Columbia, deserves to be heard.”
Although concrete plans are yet to be made, the revitalization seems to be gaining traction.