Five year wait for a slip on the BC coast

Coming back to BC, it was quite a surprise to find that there are few if any places to tie up a boat on the southern coast.

This is not a new phenomenon. Back in October, 2005, David Allester and Eileen Quinn of Little Gidding reported a multiyear wait for a place in Vancouver's municipal marina:

We ended our marina tour back at Vancouver's Heather civic marina. It has a total of 27 liveaboard slips, 11 in our size category. We've been on their waiting list since 1996. Manager Brian Ferguson cheerfully told us, "Hey, don't give up, there are only a couple of names ahead of you on the list." He did admit, however, that the turnover rate is virtually zero and that he didn't know of anyone with plans to leave. When we asked him why there weren't more liveaboard spaces being developed at Heather or at other marinas in the area given the obvious demand, he said, "There's a big demand for dock space period. We've got waiting lists for all of our slips, not just the liveaboard ones."