Comment: B.C. Ferries spends billions overseas amid trade war

The truth is, Canadian shipyards aren't competing against foreign companies. They're competing against foreign governments. A commentary by the president of the B.C. Ferry and Marine Workers' Union on behalf of the Build Them Here Shipbuilding Coalition. The coalition that brings together unions and labour organizations representing ferry, marine, construction and trades workers in B.C. and Canada. If you live on the coast, ferries are part of everyday life. They get us to medical appointments, family visits and work. They carry the food, building materials and other goods our communities depend on. You help pay for the ferry system as a passenger, and through taxes. So when B.C. Ferries spends billions of dollars on new ships, where should that money go? Four new ferries are being built in China. The construction work, supplier contracts, training opportunities and most of the economic benefit will go there too. A new report, to be released this week, looks at what would happen if that same work were done in Canada instead. Building the ships in Canada would add an estimated $1.5 billion to the country's gross domestic product, with 85 per cent of that benefit staying in B.C. It would generate about $413 million in government revenue and create more than 10,000 person-years of employment. A person-year means one year of work for one person. That's years of steady work for shipbuilders, engineers, tradespeople and workers at businesses supplying everything from steel and electrical systems to paint and safety equipment. Those paycheques would help families cover mortgages, buy groceries and support businesses in their own communities. The government revenue would help pay for the schools, hospitals, roads and other public services we all use. Until 2002, every ferry built for B.C. Ferries had been built in B.C. That included the two large Spirit-class ferries built in the early 1990s, with work shared among shipyards in Victoria, Esquimalt, North Vancouver and the Lower Mainland. Those contracts supported skilled workers and sustained B.C.'s shipbuilding capacity. Then the provincial government told B.C. Ferries to open shipbuilding contracts to international bidders. Since then, every new large ferry has been built outside Canada. We're now told our shipyards can't build large ferries. After more than 20 years of sending the work overseas, that's not surprising. Shipyards won't invest in facilities, equipment and training if there's no expectation of work. That's the cycle we need to break. Rebuilding B.C.'s shipbuilding capacity requires provincial leadership and a long-term strategy. The province must bring shipbuilders, workers, B.C. Ferries, training institutions and Ottawa together to decide what facilities we need, how the work can be shared among our shipyards and how we will train the workers we need to do it. We need the province to act now if the next B.C. Ferries ship orders are going to be built here. B.C. Ferries must be required to consider community benefit and maximize Canadian materials and supply chains when buying ships. Choosing the cheapest ships doesn't save money if we ignore the jobs and taxes we lose in the bargain. Successful shipbuilding countries use government purchasing and public policy to support their workers and businesses. We can do the same. Our neighbours in Washington know this. Every ferry in the state fleet has to be built in the U.S. Norway used public ferry purchasing to build a successful electric ferry industry. China subsidizes its shipyards with cheap land, low-interest loans, tax breaks and other breaks. The truth is, Canadian shipyards aren't competing against foreign companies. They're competing against foreign governments. The four ferries being built in China won't be the last ships B.C. Ferries needs. Our population is growing and our ferries are old. If we want that work and those paycheques to stay in B.C., we need to start planning now. The report will be available at buildthemhere.ca on Sept. 10.