Premier Horgan ‘hopeful’ five new BC Ferries’ vessels will be built in British Columbia

B.C. Premier John Horgan said his “preference” is for new B.C. Ferries vessels to be built in British Columbia.

BC Ferries has announced plans to build four or five Island and Salish class vessels in the next few years and five new C-class ferries with at least one vessel on the water by 2024. The C-class vessels typically run on the Duke Point-Tsawwassen, Horseshoe Bay-Departure Bay and Horseshoe Bay-Langdale routes.

WATCH: BC Ferries announces plans for new ships

1:50 BC Ferries announces plans for new ships

“We are looking at what policy choices we could make to revitalize the ship-building industry,” Horgan said. “We are going to see what we can do to get back to a place where a maritime province has an ability to not just maintain cruise ships but to move people up and down the coast.”

A shipyard in Poland built the last group of vessels. Horgan says the previous B.C. Liberal government hurt the local economy by moving construction out of the province. British Columbia shipyards struggle to compete with Polish shipyards because they pay workers lower wages.

Also, many B.C. shipyards could not fit the C-class ships. The Seaspan shipyard in North Vancouver is big enough but is extremely busy with federal contracts.

Horgan says the previous government is to blame for not committing to projects at home.

WATCH: BC Ferries announces plans for new ships

1:50 BC Ferries announces plans for new ships

“We have had 16 years of shipbuilding on the B.C. Liberal watch outsourced to other nations, paying mortgages in Poland and Germany, training workers in Poland and Germany,” he said.

“The industry is not what it was. But I am certainly hopeful that we can work with B.C. Ferries and the industry to participate in the bids the best we can.”

B.C. Ferries will be releasing a request for interest in the next few weeks to build the smaller Island and Salish class vessels. The Salish class vessels run on the Comox-Powell River, Tsawwassen-Southern Gulf Islands and Southern Gulf Islands routes. Three new Salish class ships arrived in 2017 that were all built in Poland.

“We are very keen it gets shopped around as much and local business has a chance to bid on that,” said B.C. Ferries vice-president Mark Wilson. “We encourage all of local industry to participate.”

B.C. Ferries is also looking for expert technical consultants in the first step to replace the C class vessels on major routes. It will be a few years until a request goes out to build these vessels.

“We are probably a year, two years away from starting the contracting on these new major vessels,” said Wilson.”Our fleet is 31 years old. We need to replace 10 to 15 ships over the next 10 to 15 years and that is a lot of ships. We are always doing what we can to work with local shipbuilders.”

The provincial government is already applying the pressure for locally constructed ships. Meridian Marine president James McFadden says his company currently does maintenance work on B.C. Ferries and there isn’t the capacity in the province to build some of these bigger ships.

“We are lacking the skills to build local. Some of these vessels are 450, 500 feet long. There is no infrastructure here right now to build ferries like that,”  said McFadden. “Seaspan is tied up for the next 10 to 12 years and I don’t think there is a chance the bigger vessels can be built local.”

Transportation Minister Claire Trevena says the industry has been allowed to become “run down” but, like Horgan, she is optimistic it can be restored.

“Our government would really like to see B.C. ferries built in British Columbia. It creates jobs,” Trevena said.

“BC Ferries would create a great backbone for an industry. It will obviously take time to work with B.C. Ferries to get the shipyards together. But I really would like to see B.C. Ferries making that commitment to build ships in B.C. again.”