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Feds should fund BC Ferries equal to Atlantic coast: B.C. premier

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With confirmation coming Monday that the federal transportation committee is looking into the BC Ferries’ decision to buy four major vessels from a Chinese shipyard, B.C. Premier David Eby is calling on the feds to look deeper into ferry funding across the country.

During an unrelated media conference, Eby reiterated that he is not happy with the decision to buy ferries from another country, either.

He said that the federal government should also look into discrepancies between how ferries are funded on the east and west coasts.

“I would encourage [the federal government] to broaden the inquiry and to look at the difference between how BC Ferries users are treated compared to Atlantic Canadian ferry users,” Eby said Monday afternoon.

Earlier Monday, the House of Commons transport committee met, deciding to review the BC Ferries’ deal.

Eby argued that only $1 of a federal subsidy goes to a B.C. Ferries user, while $300 of a federal subsidy goes to every Atlantic Canadian ferry user.

Eby said he doesn’t understand “the differential treatment.”

He pointed at a previous incident when Marine Atlantic, which runs ferry services in Canada’s Atlantic provinces of Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia, had its ferry paid for by Ottawa.

“In fact, a ferry built at the exact same shipyard as the BC Ferries ferries are going to be built at, had its ferry paid for in its entirety, whereas the West Coast only qualifies for a loan,” Eby explained.

The loan Eby referred to is a $1 billion contribution by the Canada Infrastructure Bank.

On June 26, the bank issued a statement saying that the new ferries for B.C. “wouldn’t likely be purchased” without their financing.

Federal Transport Minister Chrystia Freeland expressed her dismay in a June letter to her B.C. counterpart regarding the deal, demanding confirmation that no federal funding would be used for the ferry purchases.

The ferry for Marine Atlantic was delivered in February 2024 by CMI Weihai, the same shipyard BC Ferries contracted to build its four new vessels.

Eby says that the federal government has a different kind of partnership with the ferry companies on the East Coast.

“I will say that with respect to taking direction from the federal government about how the ferry service should run in British Columbia, that it is a tough pill to swallow, right? If we had a true partnership like they do on the East Coast and delivering ferry services, and that’s great,” the premier said.