The Editor,
I wish to put forward a concern I have in regards to the River Queen operations. In recent days, I have been less fortunate in gaining passengers for this activity, and there have been several occasions where potential passengers have indicated the duration of the trip puts them at odds with the parking restriction of two hours now in effect in the Steveston Village.
Essentially, a 40-minute activity such as River Queen cannot be combined with any other Steveston activity as two hours is not enough time to combine shopping, lunch, or a visit to the Gulf of Georgia/Britannia Shipyard, or any of the other major attractions.
The fact that this has been pointed out to me as a principal reason for not taking the trip is worthy of note, and worth reporting to you for consideration. (In fact, at 5 p.m. yesterday I had an 11-person family open to the trip, yet declined as their parking was due to expire in the trip time frame.) It does not help the situation that enforcement is highly visible, and signs indicating "Strict Enforcement" throughout the village serve to re-enforce the need to limit our potential customer's time available for our service.
As I find my experience with Vancouver Whale Watch and River Queen to be very valuable, and indeed see the River Queen as an exciting addition to the wonderful adventure that is Steveston, I think it is important to express as strongly as possible the clearly negative impact that the punitive and unnecessary parking situation is having on the River Queen and hope we can bring this issue forward to the appropriate authorities.
Skipper Matthew McBride Richmond
