Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre in a file photo. The Canadian Press/Sean Kilpatrick
The Conservatives are calling on Ottawa to cancel a $1 billion loan the federal infrastructure bank is providing to BC Ferries for the purchase of four new vessels from a Chinese state-owned shipyard, saying the ships should be built in Canada to support domestic industries amid U.S. tariffs.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre announced his party’s request to the Liberal government on July 9, saying the funding for the BC Ferries deal with a Chinese shipbuilder will “outsource Canadian steel, aluminum and shipbuilding jobs to a foreign, state-owned enterprise.” The Canada Infrastructure Bank (CIB) announced the $1 billion loan to BC Ferries late last month, arguing that without its financing, the cost of the new vessels would fall to the ferry operator’s customers.
