The BC Conservatives want Transportation and Transit Minister Mike Farnworth to step in and cancel BC Ferries' contract with a Chinese shipbuilder for four new ferries.
BC Ferries announced on Tuesday (June 10) that it had awarded the contract to build four new ferries to the Chinese state-owned China Merchants Industry Weihai Shipyards. BC Ferries CEO Nicolas Jimenez justified the choice based on the overall strength of the bid, including price, quality and timelines. BC Ferries is a Crown corporation run independently of government by an executive team, board of directors and the B.C. Ferry Authority.
“The government appoints most of the BC Ferries board, including the board chair, who is a former NDP cabinet minister,” said Harman Bhangu, the Conservative Transportation critic, in a news release referring to board chair Joy MacPhail. “This deal is fully within the government’s control."
Farnworth said in a statement following the announcement that he was "disappointed" not to see more involvement from Canadian shipyards, but noted that BC Ferries is independent and makes its own decisions.
“I do have concerns around procuring services from any country that is actively harming Canada’s economy through unfair tariffs or other protectionist trade practices," he said. "I have shared these concerns with BC Ferries.”
Bhangu contrasted the recent decision of Premier David Eby not to stop in China on his Asia trade trip with the choice to pay what could be billions of dollars to a Chinese state-owned firm. BC Ferries has not released the amount of the winning bid.
Like Farnworth, Bhangu highlighted Chinese tariffs on Canadian goods, especially on B.C. seafood.
“China’s tariffs are putting B.C. jobs at risk, and the answer from BC Ferries is to hand China the biggest ferry contract in a generation,” Bhangu said.
He also raised the alarm about the spectre of Chinese state-sponsored actors conducting cyber-espionage, questioning what impact having ferries built in China could have. He wants the federal government to conduct a national security review of the contract.
