Federal politicians convened in Ottawa Friday for what was supposed to be a reckoning over BC Ferries’ $1-billion China shipbuilding deal. But instead it became a masterclass in buck-passing, bureaucratic dodgeball and curated helplessness.
MPs on the transport committee heard from cabinet ministers and CEOs suddenly rendered impotent on the issue of doing business with an authoritarian regime currently imposing crippling sanctions on Canada’s seafood sector, interfering with its elections and arming its enemies.
All expressed concern that a deal like this could happen with a hostile nation, while also insisting they were powerless to stop it.
“I'm very disappointed by the decision,” Housing Minister Gregor Robertson told the committee.
Robertson oversees the Canada Infrastructure Bank providing the $1-billion loan.
“CIB is independent,” he said. “There is no political interference in the decisions made by the board of the CIB.”
CIB’s CEO, Ehren Cory, professed surprise at all the controversy, saying the Crown corporation is merely loaning money to BC Ferries, and where the ferry corporation chooses to spend that money is not the bank’s concern.
“That wasn't part of our analysis, it wasn't part of the decision made on the loan, because our loan is about benefiting the B.C. customers, the 23 million people or so who use the service,” said Cory.
Transportation Minister Chrystia Freeland declared similar helplessness.
“I am dismayed by this procurement,” she said. But BC Ferries “is not an entity under the authority of Transport Canada,” she claimed.
The feckless performances were easy pickings for opposition MPs.
“I mean, I'm also disappointed and dismayed, but if you're the one responsible, are you just disappointed in yourself?” Bloc Québécois MP Xavier Barsalou-Duval asked Freeland, rhetorically.
North Island-Powell River Conservative MP Aaron Gunn challenged Robertson’s excuses.
“You say the bank is independent, but it's also true is it not, that under section eight of that act you appoint the board, under section nine you appoint the CEO, and under section 17 you approve their annual budget?” asked Gunn.
“So don't you think there should be, if we’re shelling out a billion dollars in taxpayer money, there should at least be a Canadian content requirement?”
Robertson was forced to agree, admitting he does control “policy direction” for the Crown corporation and that he’s ordered it to focus on loaning money to projects that generate Canadian jobs in the future.
“Are you then basically admitting that it was a mistake for the government not to have that policy direction in place prior to this agreement being signed in March?” asked Gunn.
Robertson, who was elected in April as part of a Liberal party now in its 10th year in power: “In terms of prior governments, I think they were operating in a very different context.”
Robertson contradicted himself several times in his testimony.
Robertson told CKNW on July 7 that the CIB had no idea China was part of the deal. Yet the CIB’s CEO told MPs he knew in March that the top two bidders were Chinese.
Even more confusing was when Robertson testified he phoned the CIB CEO June 12 to explore reversing the deal, undercutting his earlier claims of the bank’s independence.
“That's where I was informed of the fact that this deal was advanced earlier in the year and was not to be turned around at that point,” said Robertson. “The deal had been executed.”
Like Robertson, Freeland tried to put a positive spin on the controversy, saying it has prompted her to write 71 letters to federal transport agencies demanding they use Canadian bidders in the future.
She also said she’s convening a meeting of ferry companies and shipyards to map out a strategy on shipbuilding, as if years-old federal and provincial shipbuilding strategies don’t already exist, are gathering dust and have failed to deliver.
Then there was BC Ferries CEO Nicholas Jimenez. To say he got a rough ride from MPs would be an understatement.
“Would you acknowledge that we are essentially bank-rolling the offshoring of critical ship building jobs to an adversarial regime because they are willing to pay their workers less and have them work in worse and lower safety and environmental and labour conditions? Jimenez was asked by Gunn.
Jimenez: “We settled on a shipyard that is bringing significant value to British Columbians.”
The Ferries CEO was put on the hot seat over doing business with a country that is known to use both forced labour and child labour, with South Kelowna Conservative MP Dan Albas asking Jimenez how he can comply with new federal laws that requires companies to certify their supply chain is not violating either.
The CEO said he believes China will adhere to humane labour practices as per its contract with BC Ferries.
Jimenez also repeated claims it would have cost $1.2 billion more to build the ships in a country allied to Canada’s interests, or part of NATO. And he reiterated that no Canadian shipyard bid—but was pushed back by MPs who’d been told by North Vancouver’s Seaspan that it couldn’t compete with a country known for ignoring environmental and labour safety.
The day of testimony closed with a motion to force BC Ferries, the Canada Infrastructure Bank, and the federal and provincial governments to hand over all documents related to the China deal by Aug. 28, including emails and texts about the issue from staff in the Prime Minister’s Office and inside the B.C. government.
That’s a political nightmare for both the federal and provincial governments, who’ve already been dragged through more than two months of intense criticism and now have to fork over sensitive internal records from their most powerful offices, with the high risk it embarrasses the prime minister and premier.
You couldn’t construct a worse political scenario if you tried.
“Our decisions have saved our customers and British Columbians unaffordable, unnecessary fare increases, and I'm proud that we're able to deliver for them,” said Jimenez.
Proud?
There’s nothing to be proud about here—not the decision, not the aftermath, and certainly not the performances in Ottawa. Everyone involved seems incapable of embarrassment. Perhaps that, more than anything, explains how we got into this mess. And why no one seems capable of getting us out.
Rob Shaw has spent more than 17 years covering B.C. politics, now reporting for CHEK News and writing for The Orca/BIV. He is the co-author of the national bestselling book A Matter of Confidence, host of the weekly podcast Political Capital, and a regular guest on CBC Radio.
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