Almost 10,000 jobs lost; leaked report shows B.C. could have built ferries

The leaked Seaspan report confirms what we’ve said all along: BC Ferries vessels could and should be built in British Columbia. Instead of investing at home, leadership is focussed on sending billions overseas, ignoring nearly 10,000 jobs, $1.1 billion in economic activity and $234 million in tax revenue.

This was a failure of leadership. Without Canadian content rules, local yards couldn’t compete against heavily subsidized foreign labour. Other countries build capacity by phasing in work. The report showed how B.C. could have done the same, starting with outfitting, then partial builds, then full builds.

Canadian shipyards didn’t refuse to bid because they lacked capacity. They stepped back because the process prioritized rock-bottom prices. As George McPherson of the Shipyard General Workers’ Federation told the federal transportation committee last week, preparing a bid is a massive investment. No yard will waste resources when there’s no hope of winning.

Public feedback gathered by the BC Ferries commissioner earlier this year showed strong support for building here at home. British Columbians were clear: our money, our shipyards. To suggest customers only want the cheapest ferries erases what the commissioner actually heard.

Canadian workers cannot compete on cost against a state-subsidized industry that relies on low wages and poor labour standards. Focusing on $230 million in refit work over the life of these vessels ignores the billions in jobs, taxes and supply chain growth that could have stayed in B.C.

Once again, BC Ferries’ broken governance model has failed to protect the public interest.

The path forward is still open. The last vessels of this program should go to B.C. yards, with real Canadian content rules. British Columbia deserves ferries built here, by us, for us, for generations.