BC Ferries chair Joy MacPhail exits after guiding fleet modernization
The longtime NDP veteran steps down from her role leading the ferry company's governance board after four years steering major capital projects.
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Joy MacPhail, a prominent BC NDP veteran who held several key cabinet roles in the 1990s, is stepping down as chair of BC Ferries' governance board after her term expired.
Cathy McLay, the board's current vice-chair, will serve as acting chair until a permanent replacement is appointed. The terms of Eric Denhoff and Dennis Blatchford were also not renewed, though their positions have already been filled with Jessica Bowering, a lawyer and senior counsel at Hawkings Lang and Price, and Marlene Kowalski, an accountant with senior financial experience at regional institutions.
MacPhail, now 74, was appointed BC Ferries' board chair in 2022 during a period of heightened criticism over the ferry company's declining service standards. Before that, she chaired ICBC's board of directors. The BC Ferry Authority credited her with helping steer the company onto a stronger course by improving services, setting performance targets, and advancing major capital projects. Her tenure was marked by one of the most controversial decisions in BC Ferries history: the approval to build four new Summit-class vessels at a Chinese shipyard owned by the Government of China.
