B.C. Ferries to buy foreign ships despite Eby’s “buy Canada” bluster

by Quinn Patrick, True North

Despite ongoing political rhetoric about supporting Canadian industry and reinvigorating the local economy, B.C. Ferries has confirmed that four major new vessels will be built overseas.

The provincial Crown corporation has yet to decide which company will be awarded the contract but what is known is that the work won’t be done by a Canadian company.

Both Liberal Leader Mark Carney and Premier David Eby have talked about the need to bolster the domestic economy in the wake of U.S. tariffs but B.C. shipyards say they are unable to compete with foreign companies without incentives.

Carney has been campaigning with the message, “it’s time to build,” saying that he will ensure that “Canadian workers have the tools they need to take on the challenges of today and tomorrow.”

Eby announced in February that he “directed government and Crown agencies to exclude US suppliers from any new purchasing or procurement agreements.”

“It’s just one of the actions we are taking to prioritize Canada first,” said Eby.

However, Seaspan, which owns B.C.’s largest shipyards has previously expressed its desire to bid on building B.C. Ferries’ major vessels.

“We believe that there is a great opportunity for the province of B.C. to show leadership by developing a strategy by which future B.C. Ferries vessels could be built in B.C. and therefore provide much larger strategic and economic benefits to the province,” wrote David Hargreaves, Seaspan’s senior vice-president of strategy, in a letter to the Office of the B.C. Ferries Commissioner.