Bob Mackin
BC Ferries is hiding nearly all of the key internal report that recommended a Chinese state-owned shipyard build its next four ferries.
It is also refusing to show the names of the unsuccessful bidders.
Artist’s rendering of one of the four new BC Ferries to be built in China. (BC Ferries)
The taxpayer-owned company announced the contract with CMI Weihai Shipyards on June 10. It sparked calls to scrap the deal — backed by a $1 billion loan from the federal Liberal government — due to national security concerns at a time when NDP Premier David Eby is urging citizens to buy Canadian.
New details
Under freedom of information, theBreaker.news obtained a heavily censored, eight-page internal report created April 11 and revised April 16. All but parts of the first and last pages are censored.
Despite the secrecy, the document states three shipyards were chosen Jan. 31 to proceed to evaluation, including “reference checks, site visits/verifications, and further assessments.”
The project team consulted Chinese shipbuilding consultant Marinus Vessels Ltd. and the American Bureau of Shipping and conducted site visits with shipbroker Clarksons to verify capabilities, quality, safety and environmental management plans and practices.
Project manager Mark Schaaf, a former Royal Canadian Navy officer, provided evaluation results to Ed Hooper, the executive director of shipbuilding. After site visits, the Ferry Renewal Program Board shortlisted “only two” shipyards on Feb. 25, because the proponents “would ensure a sufficiently competitive procurement environment.”
More than six, yellowed-out pages later, the recommendation to approve CMI Weihai Shipyards so it can “be invited to work with BC Ferry Services to produce the execution versions of the shipbuilding contracts and technical specifications, in time for mid-May contract signing.”
Why it matters
BC Ferries chose to withhold so much information for fear of financial harm and harm to third-party trade secrets.
But the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner has repeatedly upheld the public’s right to know about public body procurement, including the names and scores of all shortlisted companies.
BC Ferries’ March 1, 2024 request for supplier qualification, handled by Clarksons, required bidders to confirm that they had delivered at least one turnkey vessel in the last five years over 90 metres in length, over 5,000 gross tonnes or over 3,000 tonnes displacement.
BC Ferries had originally contemplated awarding the contract last December with a Nov. 1, 2028 deadline for delivery of the first new vessel.
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