Concerns over a federal loan being used to buy ferries for British Columbia from a Chinese company are “bizarre” given the amount of money Ottawa has spent on ferries in Eastern Canada, including from the same shipyard, Premier David Eby said.
Eby, who was in Ottawa for a series of meetings, told reporters on Thursday that he met with newly appointed Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon and the BC Ferries deal was discussed.
The premier was asked about a report in The Globe and Mail that Transport Canada had weeks of warning before BC Ferries announced in June that it was buying four ships from state-owned China Merchants Industry Weihai Shipyards.
Then-transport minister Chrystia Freeland criticized the deal after it became public, saying she was “dismayed” by BC Ferries’ decision.
The Canada Infrastructure Bank, a Crown corporation, loaned BC Ferries $1 billion to finance the purchase before Freeland’s criticisms.
Eby said he was disappointed there had not been more emphasis on what he called “the incredibly unfortunate treatment” of ferry users in British Columbia compared with those in Eastern Canada.
“The fact that the federal government paid for an entire ferry built at the same (Chinese) shipyard for Eastern Canada, and that it is somehow a problem that BC Ferries users get access to a low-interest loan, is bizarre,” he said.
“It is a situation where B.C. ferry users get, on average, $1 in federal subsidy, while eastern ferry users get $300 in federal subsidies. And so as a result, that disparity and that unfairness needs to be addressed.”
The Ala’suinu ferry was built by Weihai Shipyards and began sailing last year between Nova Scotia and Newfoundland.
The Globe and Mail says it obtained an April 29 email between BC Ferries CEO Nicolas Jimenez and deputy transport minister Arun Thangaraj, in which Jimenez outlines the potential issues, including national-security concerns, that could arise if BC Ferries went ahead with the plan to buy new ferries from a Chinese state-owned shipyard.
In a subsequent email in June, Jimenez wrote to Thangaraj that he was “troubled” by Freeland’s reaction “despite my confidential heads up to you six weeks prior to the public rollout of our decision.”
Like Eby, Jimenez said in the email that he couldn’t recall any “negative comments” when the same shipyard built Marine Atlantic’s ship.
A statement from BC Ferries said it would not be sharing the documents publicly and didn’t have anything further to add. But it referred The Canadian Press to the article in The Globe and Mail.
Eby told a later news conference Thursday that both he and the federal government agreed Canada needs more shipbuilding capacity.
He said his message to Ottawa has been focused on fairness.
“British Columbians need to be treated fairly. If Eastern ferry-goers get their ferries paid for, so should we. If Eastern ferry-goers get $300 in subsidy, you know what? 50 bucks per ferry user in B.C. would go a long way for a lot of families and businesses.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2025
Ashley Joannou, The Canadian Press
