Panic grows in Kootenay communities amid ferry strike [Video]

A sense of panic is growing in tiny southeast British Columbia communities around Kootenay Lake over fears they will be cut off from their neighbours and jobs by an escalating ferry service labour dispute, says a local businesswoman.

The West Kootenay communities of Harrop, Procter and Glade could see their cable ferry service reduced after a B.C. Labour Relations Board ruling permitted expansion of a strike that has already limited sailings on the major Kootenay Lake routes.

For some residents, the only alternative to the cable ferry routes that run a few hundred metres across the narrow lake is an hours-long drive, while other residents fear being cut off completely.

“Everybody’s panicked here,” said Melinda Foot, co-owner of the Procter General Store.

“It’s a five-minute crossing that takes us over to all the rest of our communities, Nelson, Balfour,” she said Monday. “The ferry we’re taking here is our only …