b.c. ferries pushes back at criticism of new vessel contract at federal meeting
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queen of coquitlam at horseshoe bay.
arlen redekop
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province
b.c. ferries is laying out its case for what it would take to build new ships in canada: more government help in ensuring training for a skilled workforce and building up a domestic supply chain.
“we can’t just expect that it’s going to happen without addressing where there are gaps,” b.c. ferries ceo nicolas jimenez said, a message he is delivering tuesday to a meeting in hamilton, ont. called by federal transportation minister chrystia freeland.
b.c. ferries touched off a national firestorm in june with its decision to award the contract for four new large ferries, critical replacements for aging ships, to china merchant industry’s weihai shipyards.
under the procurement program, b.c. ferries will replace four of its oldest ferries, ranging from 53 to 65 years old, with new diesel-battery vessels able to carry 360 cars and 2,100 passengers each. they are to be delivered between 2029 and 2031.
freeland was among the politicians to slam the decision, expressing her “great consternation and disappointment” for the award, which is happening at a time china has imposed steep tariffs on exports of canola, b.c. seafood and canadian pork.
tuesday’s meeting, under the title made in canada, is intended to get government and industry leaders together to talk about what they need for ferry and railway projects to be built domestically with canadian steel and aluminum.
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“this discussion will bring these sectors together to ensure we’re building with canadian steel and aluminum (and) protecting canadian jobs,” freeland said.
jimenez didn’t disagree with freeland’s sentiment, but he noted that neither of the two canadian shipyards that pre-qualified ended up submitting bids, and he pushed back at some of their criticisms that their competition was structured in a way that they couldn’t compete.
quebec’s davie shipyard, in a letter to an mp, said the procurement process was flawed, weighted too much toward low price, and didn’t include enough credit for canadian content in bids.
that concern echoes the message of north vancouver’s seaspan shipyards, which said last september that canadian yards and supply chains “cannot compete” with low-wage countries and concluded that it wouldn’t be able to participate in the bid.
“the criticism, it’s not entirely fair,” jimenez said. “they’re basically saying, ‘we can’t compete with yards that are bigger and build ships at scale and have more advanced capabilities.'”
b.c. ferry services president and ceo nicolas jimenez waits to appear at the house of commons transport committee on parliament hill in ottawa, friday, aug. 1, 2025.
adrian wyld
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the canadian press
he added that canadian yards would need to be more competitive in order to offer fixed-price contracts on guaranteed timelines, and with competitive procurements free from political interference.
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jimenez said b.c. ferries did change some of the criteria in its pre-qualification process, such as lowering the minimum size of ship a yard has built since 2018, and did include a “value to canada” factor to make sure canadian yards qualified.
b.c. ferries hasn’t revealed the contract’s final price, but jimenez said going with even a european shipyard would have added $1.2 billion to the chinese price, which wouldn’t be fiscally responsible.
“that’s not the fiduciary responsibility that i have to british columbians, to the company, to my board or even the regulator,” jimenez said.
he added that canadian shipyards, which have been focused on the federal government’s strategy to build ships for the royal canadian navy and coast guard, haven’t participated in any of b.c. ferries’ bids for new ships in the last decade.
“i understand that the reason we didn’t get bids in this round was largely because the canadian yards were full,” jimenez said. “and i don’t think it’s really fair for british columbians to say, ‘we’re going to wait 10 years to get ships that we could otherwise get in three.'”
no one from seaspan was available for comment before deadline, but in a statement, senior vice-president dave hargreaves acknowledged b.c. ferries’ “urgent need,” and that the company is focused right now on building ships for the navy and coast guard.
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however, hargreaves said seaspan has built “a world-class capability” at its north shore yard, which is constructing large and complex ships of the size b.c. ferries needs.
their hope, he added, is that they will be able to work with the province on a strategy to build at least some of the vessels b.c. ferries needs in the future.
jimenez said the corporation will be looking to build at least two more of the larger ferries in a procurement that could start within two years. however, he added that a national strategy needs to be broader than the construction of ferries.
“if we’re only talking about ferries, honestly, i think we’re missing the point, because we’re a very, very small purchaser of vessels in the grand scheme of things,” jimenez said.
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