Ten years ago, when architect Michael van Bakel started commuting from his home on North Pender Island, B.C., to Vancouver Island, the four-hour commute was balanced by an inexpensive, peaceful lifestyle. Now, with BC Ferry fuel surcharges layered on top of fare increases, he sometimes wonders if his family's island life has a future.

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Michael van Bakel with his son at Hope Bay on Pender Island, B.C. (Michael van Bakel) CBCnews.ca: What is the fare up to now?

Michael van Bakel: There is a reduction when you buy in bulk…I think it's $28 round trip.

And gas at each end. So you're dropping 35 bucks minimum. In my case, maybe closer — oh I don't even want to think about it — [to] 40 bucks a day just to get to work.

It has got more onerous lately, to the point where you wonder whether it's worth it.

Some people told me if fuel keeps going up they may have to move off their island.

Well, that's not the first time that occurred to me either. But the draw of the islands is what keeps me there. There is an extra gravity over there, I think, that forces people who live there to stay.

I am trying to find alternatives to the commute and I have started doing that by one day a week working out of the office, from my home, and working another day out of the office would certain make the bottom line work better for me, and my children will like that better.

What would happen to your life, your work, if fuel prices doubled again?

What happens to building construction when oil hits that kind of level, everything changes, because the cost of getting materials to the site changes.The Mayne Queen runs between Pender Island and Victoria on Vancouver Island. (Courtesy BC Ferries)

The cost of working on the site, bringing in your workers and your materials, everything goes, to the point where — especially the speculative building — things will stop.

It would be a major shift. I wouldn't be driving anywhere near as much, I'd have to plan everything, in terms of where and when I went to job sites …

It would affect everything within the office too. The kind of costs that we have to absorb in order to run the business and get our people to job sites and meetings etc. Everything would have to be up for review.

And the commute?

If I would find it difficult to make a living and commute, then is my property value going to be affected by that?

'Is anyone going to want to buy my place should I decide to try to move closer to my work?'—Michael van Bakel

Meaning, is anyone going to want to buy my place should I decide to try to move closer to my work? That can of worms I haven't even tried to open yet, but I can see some pretty nasty surprises down the road.

Probably there would be people who could afford your place but they would be the sorts of people who would have a float plane.

Or [they] are people who would have it as a second residence. And we have seen that already, where there are people with the resources to do so, buying or building and the place sits empty for a good part of the year.

That's how these small communities collapse, I think.

Any further thoughts on how the price of fuel is affecting your family's life?

Maybe we start thinking about the home garden more realistically, and those sorts of things. I think the actual effects of all this are only starting to be felt, and I think we have a lot of eye-opening to do before we can really start making plans for how we are going to deal with it.