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GIBSONS, B.C. — It’s a 40-minute ferry trip from Horseshoe Bay, near Vancouver, to this coastal spot. Ten nautical miles is really not much. But with no roads from the south, the distance feels great, what with infrequent sailings, occasional equipment failures, odd mishaps at the dock.

By virtue of geography — and unsteady, expensive B.C. Ferries service — Gibsons and the rest of the Sunshine Coast that stretch another 180 kilometres north are, according to local tourism promotional fluff, the province’s “best kept secret.”

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It’s a lovely region, to be sure, and essentially remote, cut off from from the crowded lower mainland. Depending on one’s perspective, this is a blessing, or a curse.

There’s now a plan brewing, an ambitious scheme that would bridge the ocean-filled gap. B.C.’s Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure is floating proposals that would allow cars and trucks to bypass or traverse Howe Sound, the body of water that separates Gibsons and points north from the hurly-burly south.