The state ferry system hopes to resume service next summer to Prince Rupert, British Columbia, after a two-year absence due to a customs-clearance issue between the U.S. and Canada.
“We are now working at very high levels to try to get back there,” said John Falvey, general manager of the Alaska Marine Highway System. “Rupert is an important port for us.”
It’s also a historic port.
The Alaska Marine Highway System went into business in 1963, sailing between Prince Rupert and Southeast, before extending its run to Seattle in 1967 and maintaining service to both ports, providing travelers with two options to connect to the North American highway system.
The state stopped service to Prince Rupert in October 2019 after U.S. and Canadian officials could not resolve differences over customs procedures.
The Alaska ferry system had brought customs agents from Ketchikan onboard the vessel when sailing to Prince Rupert so the officers could pre-clear travelers as they boarded for the U.S. Those officers were unarmed, which worked for decades until U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), under the Department of Homeland Security, decided that armed law enforcement officers needed to be present while its agents conducted inspections at the Rupert ferry terminal.
“In order to reduce security risks to the U.S, and provide safety for the traveling public and unarmed CBP officers,” the federal agency determined that armed officers must be present at the terminal, the agency said in 2019.
Alaska Transportation Department Commissioner John MacKinnon didn’t see why the big deal about needing armed personnel. “I think in the history of access to Prince Rupert, the only issues that have required law enforcement have been a couple of people that had too much to drink,” MacKinnon told a conference of Southeast community and business leaders in May 2019.
The police requirement stems from a 2015 agreement signed by the U.S. and Canada to upgrade border security, according to news reports in 2019.
Lacking an agreement and funding to contract with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police for armed officers to work the ferry loadings, and unable to resolve the issue with U.S. and Canadian officials, the Alaska Marine Highway System ended its service to Prince Rupert.
Service to the port became moot in March 2020 when Canada closed its border at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Canada reopened its border to U.S. citizens earlier this month.
U.S., Canadian and Alaska officials never stopped working to find a solution to the issue of armed law enforcement officers during ferry calls.
Falvey would not discuss specifics of a possible resolution to the issue. An announcement could come within the next few months, he said.
“Our goal is to get running there May 1,” which is why the draft summer 2022 Alaska ferry schedule includes a “placeholder” one week a month for the Matanuska to make two round trips that week between Prince Rupert and Ketchikan, which is about a six-hour voyage north of the Canadian port.
The twice-weekly 17-hour opening in the Matanuska’s summer 2022 schedule would allow the ship to run to Rupert and back, with time for customs clearance, loading and unloading.
Travelers and freight haulers long appreciated the option of taking the Alaska ferry to Prince Rupert rather than the longer and more expensive sailing to Puget Sound.
Prince Rupert officials in 2019 said about 14,000 travelers used the Alaska terminal each year.
In addition to resolving the issue between U.S. Customs and the Canada Border Services Agency, the state needs to “lock down what is needed” to upgrade the terminal building and other facilities to accommodate U.S. Customs requirements, Falvey said.
“The old wooden dock is in tough shape,” Falvey said. “We believe it will be OK,” but to make sure the state would send engineers to inspect the structure.
The state had been looking at making longer-term improvements to the dock before the impasse shut down ferry service in 2019. But strings attached to any federal funds used for the project would require the use of U.S. steel, while Canadian law says not in their country, Falvey said.
If the state is able to resume service to Prince Rupert, he said, it could keep working toward improvements at the terminal, including possibly moving its moorage to the BC Ferries tie-up next door. “They have a beautiful dock,” Falvey said. Though the BC Ferries terminal lacks customs facilities, which would require another solution, he said.
The state has a long-term lease on the dock and terminal building, which is owned by the Prince Rupert Port Authority, Falvey said.
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