British Columbia Ferry Services Inc. (BC Ferries for short) is a Canadian ferry service. It is based in Victoria, British Columbia and they are responsible for most of the travel between the coastal communities of the Lower Mainland and other communities on Vancouver Island.
In 1958, the Social Credit Party government decided to create the BC Ferry service after employees of CP Steamships and the Black Ball Line decided to strike and they wanted to make it Crown-owned. On June 15, 1960, the company had their first sailing with the MV Tsawwassen traveling between Swartz Bay and Tsawwassen.
In the 1990s, the company ordered three fast ferries (Explorer, Discovery, and Voyager) but they were quickly scrapped after they kept continuing to have difficulties and issues.
On August 26, 2012, the company made a lot of cuts to try and save $1 million. These cuts included service from the Swartz Bay–Tsawwassen route, eliminating both 18 round trips on the Horseshoe Bay–Departure Bay route, and 48 round trips on the Duke Point–Tsawwassen route.