It’s a good thing Russia didn’t table a low-ball bid for the next round of BC Ferries ships. Because the province might well be shaking hands with Vladamir Putin right now for four shiny new boats, based on the decision-making and values on display Tuesday by Premier David Eby.
It’s hard to escape that conclusion, after listening to the premier defend his decision not to overturn a multibillion-dollar contract between government-owned BC Ferries and the government of China.
He ducked questions about supporting a brutal authoritarian regime with public money, and his own vocal criticism of China for things like election interference, money laundering and the toxic drug crisis. Instead, he repeated a single defence: China can build our ferries faster and cheaper than anyone else.
“It took five years to get through this process,” he said. “We will not leave families sitting on the blacktop waiting for a ferry that is broken down on the strait somewhere when they need to get to see grandma, or a business [is] desperate to get their deliveries. They’re just urgently needed ferries.”
In other words, the ends justify the means when it comes to the government-owned BC Ferries corporation. With that logic, we should count ourselves lucky North Korea didn’t bid.
“I agree it's not ideal that the ferry award went to China,” said Eby. “But reopening would mean a delay in delivering ferries for British Columbians who are desperate for them, would mean significantly increased costs, and at this point, I'm not prepared to do that.”
It is a message not likely to sit well with NDP allies in the organized labour or social justice movements that make up the party’s base. Already, they’ve passed an emergency motion at the party’s executive council, repudiating the idea that cheap, fast and foreign is better than using the massive expenditure to kick-start a homegrown shipbuilding sector.
Underpinning the criticism are two questions I lobbed at the premier on Tuesday: Does the government not have a moral obligation to intervene in the case of China, where experts say the money from BC Ferries will actually help the country build its capacity for military troop carriers?
And even if it costs an additional $1 billion (as the government claims) to award the work to a European shipyard, isn’t that a more just use of public funds?
The premier was unmoved by either question. “China is our second biggest trading partner after the United States,” he replied.
A pivot back to the almighty dollar.
The premier tried to profess frustration that BC Ferries is an “independent” company—despite his government being the sole shareholder, holding the service contract, providing the annual subsidy, controlling both governance boards, installing its own CEO and chair, and passing legislation to force the company to act in “the public interest” as government defines. Independent indeed, except for the money, governance and law.
“Procurement generally within government is kept separate from politicians for very good reason,” the premier argued, perhaps hoping the public had suffered sudden onset amnesia from 68 days ago when he single-handedly “directed” government procurement away from the United States towards more expensive Canadian contracts.
The premier expressed surprise and disappointment that North Vancouver-based Seaspan lacked capacity to bid on the BC Ferries vessels.
“I see an opportunity for us to work with the federal government to ensure that ferries five through eight are delivered right here at home, so we've got work ahead of us, no question,” he said.
Before reinventing that wheel, the Eby administration might want to dust off the announcement the government made not four years ago when it partnered with Ottawa, Seaspan, BC Ferries and others to create the 2021 “BC Shipbuilding Advisory Committee” with the goal of “supporting a made-in-BC shipbuilding strategy.”
That committee studied the exact issue Eby now wants to re-investigate. The province created a new West Coast Maritime Office, with staff in Victoria and Vancouver, to bring together industries, First Nations and the federal government. The result of all that work? Jack nothing, apparently. And yet, the government wants to do it all over again.
“Today we saw what kind of a man David Eby really is,” said Opposition BC Conservative transport critic Harman Bhangu. “A man who is willing to sell out B.C. workers to save a few dollars. A man who has no problem doing business with a regime that Prime Minister Mark Carney [called] one of Canada’s largest threats. A man who is completely unwilling to stick [to] his words of ‘Buy B.C.’ and ‘Team Canada’ and instead looks for the easy way out.”
The criticism is likely to sting the BC NDP, in part because it’s being repeated by some folks inside the party who are watching the government’s moral compass spin sideways.
What is the purpose, they ask, of being a New Democratic party whose core mission is to advance social justice, democratic principles and public money for public benefit, if once you are in power you end up taking the cheap and easy way out that benefits an authoritarian state with a dismal human rights record that is trying to undermine Canada and its allies?
The premier had no answer to that question Tuesday.
The great fear of Eby’s advisors over the last few days was that rising criticism could turn this issue from a negative story into a defining moment for the government.
Unfortunately for them, that came true.
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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