Freeland Recalled to Testify on B.C. Ferries’ China Shipyard Deal After Emails Surface

Chrystia Freeland is being recalled to testify before Parliament’s transport committee after new evidence raised questions about what she knew regarding B.C. Ferries’ controversial shipbuilding deal with a Chinese state-owned company.

The Globe and Mail reported this week on emails showing B.C. Ferries CEO Nicolas Jimenez alerted Transport Canada’s deputy minister on April 29 about plans to purchase four vessels from China Merchants Industry Weihai Shipyards. In June, Jimenez wrote again, saying he was “troubled” by Freeland’s public criticism of the decision “despite my confidential heads up to you six weeks prior.”

Freeland, who left her transport portfolio this week to become Canada’s special envoy for Ukraine reconstruction, had called the ferry deal “dismaying” when it was announced in June. At the time, she said she wanted Canadian shipyards to win the work.

The House transport committee passed a unanimous motion Thursday to bring Freeland back for questioning, alongside other officials and representatives from Canadian shipyards. Conservative MP Dan Albas called the emails a “damning indictment,” arguing they undermine Freeland’s claim that she only learned of the deal when it became public.

B.C. Ferries has said no Canadian companies bid on the contract after a five-year procurement process. The Canada Infrastructure Bank, a federal Crown corporation, is lending $1 billion to finance the purchase.

B.C. Premier David Eby, in Ottawa Thursday, dismissed federal concerns as “bizarre,” pointing out that the same Chinese yard built the Ala’suinu ferry for Marine Atlantic in Eastern Canada with full federal funding. He argued B.C. ferry users receive only $1 in subsidy per person compared with $300 in Eastern Canada.

Eby said both Ottawa and Victoria agree Canada needs more domestic shipbuilding capacity but added his priority is fairness: “If Eastern ferry-goers get their ferries paid for, so should we.”

Freeland previously appeared before the committee in August. Her return appearance is expected to focus on when her office was first informed about the deal, and whether the federal government could have acted differently.