VICTORIA — A federal Crown corporation is loaning BC Ferries $1 billion to help buy four Chinese-made ferries, a purchase that federal Transport Minister Chrystia Freeland recently said was dismaying and should involve no federal funds.
Freeland had written to the province on June 16, asking B.C. to confirm "with utmost certainty" that no federal funds would be "diverted" to the purchase from China Merchants Industry Weihai Shipyards.
Canada Infrastructure Bank confirmed the loan on Thursday, saying the new electric ferries "wouldn't likely be purchased" without the financing.
BC Ferries CEO Nicolas Jimenez says in an interview that he "was surprised and disappointed" by Freeland's letter.
He says he would "have expected more engagement and dialogue" from Ottawa when it comes to working together on building vessels on a provincial ferry system has "really outgrown itself."
Jeff Groot, executive director of communications for BC Ferries, says the company signed the loan with the bank before it was finalized that the Chinese shipyard would win the contract, and before Freeland's letter to her provincial counterpart, Mike Farnworth.
There were no Canadian bidders for the contract.
The bank says the low-cost loan consists of up to $690 million to buy the vessels and up to $310 million for electrification infrastructure.
Jimenez says the full loan would result in expected savings of about $650 million in interest.
He says "commercial realities" for both BC Ferries and the shipyard prevent him from talking about the full size of the agreement, but adds that the loan will cover a "substantial" part of the deal.
"It is in our view, a game-changing financial arrangement that has allowed us to make this significant investment in fleet renewal," he says.
He adds that it will also improve affordability.
BC Ferries says the vessel portion of the bank's loan will represent a maximum of 42.5 per cent of the total purchase price. That would suggest that if the maximum $690 million is spent on the new ferries, their minimum cost would be about $1.6 billion.
But Groot said that was "not representative" of the cost, and there was "flexibility to repurpose" unspent amounts on the vessel side of the loan to cover infrastructure costs.
Jiminez also said it was not possible to "reverse engineer" the cost of the ships from the loan amounts.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 26, 2025.
Wolfgang Depner, The Canadian Press
