Eby/BC Ferries Corruption & CCP Deal

Chinese Canadians Concern Group on the #CCP Human Rights Violations urges Eby to cancel BC Ferries contract to buy ships from China. June 20 2025

From Rebel news:

Please sign our petition to stop BC Ferries from selling out to Communist China!

Tell BC Ferries, David Eby, and Chrystia Freeland: No CCP contracts for our coastal fleet.

While Canadian workers are being laid off, our factories sit idle, and inflation continues to crush family budgets, BC Ferries is preparing to ship a billion-dollar taxpayer-funded shipbuilding contract to a Communist dictatorship.

That’s right. Four brand-new major vessels — funded by you and built for Canada — are set to be constructed in China by a state-owned shipyard tied to:

Slave labour

Money laundering in B.C.

Fentanyl flooding our streets

Election interference in Canada

And the Trudeau-backed Mark Carney Liberals? Silent. Chrystia Freeland is “concerned,” but the feds continue funneling $36 million in annual subsidies to BC Ferries while doing nothing to stop the sellout.

Meanwhile, B.C. Premier David Eby and his Transportation Minister Mike Farnworth are pretending their hands are tied — blaming “corporate independence” while your tax dollars fund foreign jobs and empower the Chinese Communist Party.

Let’s be clear: this isn’t just about ferries. It’s about Canadian sovereignty.
It’s about Canadian jobs.
It’s about standing up to tyrants instead of doing business with them.

We must stop this betrayal before it sets a dangerous precedent.

🔴 Sign our petition to tell the CEO and Board of BC Ferries, as well as provincial and federal transport ministers: Cancel the China deal and build these ships in Canada!

2,460 signatures

Goal: 10,000 signatures

VancityNews1 reposted

Sam Cooper

@scoopercooper

I believe the U.S. government already has a justification of concern around Vancouver and BC port and shipping infrastructure and EBY is well informed enough to know his BC Ferries decision will not only harm BC but Canada’s geopolitical standing. This issue has legs.

In 2024, Colin Cooke, president and CEO of the Canadian Marine Industries and Shipbuilding Association (CMISA), cited a serious threat to Canada when he demanded that the Liberals impose 100% tariffs on Chinese-built ships. “However, the same decisive measures must be extended to Chinese-built ships, which present an even greater strategic and ethical threat,” says Colin Cooke president and CEO, CMISA. “China’s shipbuilding industry operates under the doctrine of Civil-Military Fusion whereby commercial ship exports are subsidized to strengthen the country’s military capabilities,” Cooke added." Today's announcement by Eby & the NDP to give billions of tax dollars to a Chinese state-owned company to build ferries for BC is a potential national security threat.

Eby says ship has sailed on decision to build new BC Ferries in China

Jun 17, 2025

Premier will not revisit contract, hopes to work with the federal government to get next round of new boats built in B.C.After a week out of the public eye following his trade trip to Asia, Premier David Eby was back in Victoria on Tuesday (June 17) to defend the decision by BC Ferries to build four new ferries in China.

He said that while he is unhappy the contract is going to a Chinese state-owned company, no Canadian companies bid on it and it would have cost more than $1 billion to build the ferries in a third country. The need for new ferries is so dire that it is not realistic to revisit the five-year procurement process to get the ships built elsewhere, he said.

"We need a lot of ferries, and so the work has to continue," he said. "I won't ask families to sit around with the dog, sweating in the car for a four-sailing wait, because the ferries are down."

BC Ferries announced on June 10 that it has selected China Merchants Industry Weihai Shipyards to build four new ferries, which it hopes will enter service between 2029 and 2031. The total value of the contract was not released.

Eby said the lack of a Canadian bidder shows the "hollowing out" of shipbuilding in B.C. over the past 50 years. He pledged to reach out to Prime Minister Mark Carney to try to ensure there is capacity to build the next four ferries in B.C.

Procurement decisions are made by BC Ferries independently of the government — the Crown corporation has a board, executive and ferry authority overseeing it — but the NDP government is under fire for a decision that runs counter to Buy B.C. efforts.

Eby said it is for a "very good reason" that procurement in these sorts of contracts is kept separate from government.

The government can provide direction, such as the directive to Crown corporations not to buy American as a response to U.S. tariffs, but Eby has not extended that directive to large contracts like this one.

Contracts unwinnable for Canadian shipbuilders

Local union representatives say the problem is how the procurement contract was written, with timelines that B.C. builders would be unable to meet and conditions that made it "difficult, if not impossible," for Canadian shipbuilders.

"The playing field is not level for domestic shipbuilding," said Eric McNeely, president of the B.C. Ferry and Marine Workers' Union. His union represents most of the workers on BC Ferries, as well as those involved in maintenance.

Part of the problem is that B.C. shipbuilders build end-to-end and can't build ships of that size simultaneously.

McNeely also said that while local shipbuilders can't deliver new ferries in a timeframe similar to the Chinese builders, there are ways to ensure parts are made in B.C. And there are ways to help develop shipbuilding in the province — something the premier did commit to attempting.

"It's not a capability they have right now, but it's one that could grow," McNeely said.

Brynn Bourke of the BC Building Trades union said in a written statement that the decision will "forever be a stain on BC Ferries," and her union's workers stand ready to build components for new ships should the Crown corporation reverse course.

Local shipbuilder Seaspan released a statement highlighting the work it has done building Canadian Navy and Coast Guard ships, saying it hopes the B.C. government will work with it to develop the capability to build ferries fast enough to compete.

"We look forward to exploring how this capability can be leveraged to build future BC ferries here at home, and therefore generate the strategic industrial and significant socio-economic benefits associated with capital projects of this nature for British Columbians," said Dave Hargreaves, a Seaspan senior vice president.

There are also questions about why the B.C. government would do business with a non-democratic regime and whether this is in the public interest. McNeely questioned whether China is a stable trading partner.

This can be particularly concerning when parts must be obtained in the future to maintain the ships. Securing future supply chains becomes critical.

"When we become dependent, we lose all leverage," McNeely said.

Kiel Giddens

@KielGiddens

B.C. Ferries only has one owner: the Government of British Columbia. A Government led by David Eby and the NDP. The NDP have stacked the B.C. Ferries Board with their political friends (none of whom with significant maritime experience). The NDP control the Board and they control the direction of this company. Taxpayers also provide massive subsidies - an amount determined by the NDP Government. The Chinese Government Ferries contract was Eby’s decision and he’s failed the workers of this province.