Statement on Canada Pulse Insights poll
We get it. People want new ferries now.
We know better than most that BC Ferries needs new ships. We operate and repair the ships you rely on every day.
We also know that when we build ferries overseas, we lose thousands of good jobs, apprenticeships for young people and hundreds of millions in local tax revenue.
A poll that only asks if people want to cancel a deal offers a false choice. Ask if they want to lose 10,000 jobs and a billion dollars in local wages, and you’ll get a different answer.
It’s easy to say yes to a poll question when you’re only told about penalties and delays. The real penalty is losing jobs, tax revenue and the ability to build our own ships.
That’s money that should be putting pay cheques into our communities, not creating jobs overseas.
This poll surveyed 657 people in Metro Vancouver. It didn’t ask the people who work on ferries, build them or depend on them every day.
The simple fact is we lose more than we gain with this deal, and we’ve known this for some time.
A 2014 Columbia Institute study found for every 100 shipyard jobs, another 135 are created across local suppliers and service industries.
In 2024 the BC Chamber of Commerce urged the province to include a “build-in-B.C.” requirement for new ferries, noting it would create up to 9,800 jobs, $1.7 billion in wages, $1.1 billion in GDP and $234 million in provincial tax revenue.
| Category | Estimated loss to B.C. |
| Wages | $1.2 billion |
| GDP | $1.1 billion |
| Jobs | 9,800 |
| Tax revenue | $234 million |
For decades, every vessel in the BC Ferries fleet was built right here in B.C. Then we stopped betting on British Columbians and started losing control of our industry and our supply chains.
Let’s make sure this is the last time public money and good jobs leave our shores.
