After the BC Ferries procurement plan was announced in early June, Chrystia Freeland sharply criticized the B.C. government.DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press
Members of Parliament unanimously approved a motion Thursday calling on former transport minister Chrystia Freeland to appear before a committee again in light of new e-mails revealing her department had several weeks of advance notice that BC Ferries planned to buy four new vessels from a Chinese shipyard.
The motion was approved just hours after The Globe and Mail reported on the existence of the advance warning, which came in the form of a confidential discussion and detailed follow-up e-mail exchange between BC Ferries president and chief executive Nicolas Jimenez and Transport Canada deputy minister Arun Thangaraj.
The head’s-up took place in late April. After the BC Ferries procurement plan was announced in early June, Ms. Freeland sharply criticized the B.C. government in writing, saying she was “surprised” and “dismayed” that “BC Ferries would select a Chinese state-owned shipyard to build new ferries in the current geopolitical context.”
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Mr. Jimenez wrote to Mr. Thangaraj on June 22 expressing his frustration and concern with Ms. Freeland’s letter to the B.C. government, saying he was “troubled” by the minister’s public comments.
“Your minister has repeatedly suggested she was unaware, despite my confidential heads up to you six weeks prior to the public rollout of our decision,” Mr. Jimenez wrote.
Bloc Québécois MP Xavier Barsalou-Duval moved the motion Thursday, saying Ms. Freeland must be called back to explain what she knew at the time she was publicly criticizing BC Ferries’ plan.
“Everyone was taken for idiots,” he said in French. “I think we need to hear what she has to say to explain herself.”
The motion was approved by the House of Commons standing committee on transport, infrastructure and communities, which also held a meeting on the same topic during the summer.
During that Aug. 1 meeting, the committee heard from Ms. Freeland, Housing and Infrastructure Minister Gregor Robertson, Canada Infrastructure Bank chief executive Ehren Cory and Mr. Jimenez.
Ms. Freeland was transport minister until she stepped down from the position on Tuesday to become Ottawa’s special representative to Ukraine. She remains a Liberal MP.
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The motion approved Thursday also calls for the public release of all documents the committee has so far obtained from the government in relation to the purchase. The committee agreed to hold three additional meetings related to BC Ferries and will invite a range of witnesses, including various shipbuilders, industry representatives, Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree and others.
During debate on the motion, Liberal MPs initially argued that it was unnecessary because Ms. Freeland had already appeared before the committee for an hour during the Aug. 1 hearing.
Conservative MP Dan Albas replied that a new hearing is required in light of the e-mails reported Thursday by The Globe.
“The minister was saying she was shocked,” he said. “It’s a damning indictment, because Transport Canada was made aware of [it] six weeks before that announcement, and they did nothing to protect Canadian jobs. They just sat on their hands and let it proceed.”
Mr. Albas said the government has not “been level” with the public on the issue.
“This raises a number of questions about former minister Chrystia Freeland’s abrupt resignation and blows a hole in her narrative that she wanted BC Ferries to buy Canadian and was dismayed and upset about it. She said these things on the floor of the House of Commons when myself and other members raised concerns about this procurement, so… we need to get to the bottom of this.”
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The Globe reported earlier this week that on the same afternoon in June that Ms. Freeland was telling the Commons that there was no federal connection to the purchase, senior Liberal staffers were strategizing over how to manage a looming announcement that CIB, a federal Crown corporation, had provided BC Ferries a $1-billion loan for the purchase and related infrastructure.
The e-mails from Mr. Jimenez to the deputy minister do not mention the CIB loan.
Several Liberal MPs questioned the need for additional hearings before ultimately supporting it after amendments were negotiated.
Liberal MP and committee member Will Greaves, who represents the Vancouver Island riding of Victoria, accused the Conservatives of playing politics with an essential ferry service.
Mr. Greaves said the Conservatives are using BC Ferries as a way to continue their long-standing criticism of the CIB, which was created in 2017 by the Liberal government.
“BC Ferries is being used as a vehicle to advance a broader agenda, which is a multiyear vendetta against a federal entity that, as we speak, is in the midst of funding critical investments in infrastructure across this country,” said Mr. Greaves. “I don’t think it’s appropriate, and I don’t think we should indulge in it.”
Mr. Jimenez’s June e-mail questioned why Ms. Freeland was saying no federal funding can go toward the BC Ferries purchase. He wrote that Ottawa provides about $190-million in funding for Marine Atlantic’s ferry service between Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia and that the federal Crown corporation has used the same Chinese shipyard.
B.C. Premier David Eby raised that same issue Thursday when asked to comment on Mr. Jimenez’s e-mails to Transport Canada.
The premier spoke with reporters on Parliament Hill after a meeting with Ms. Freeland’s replacement as transport minister, Steven MacKinnon.
“I did raise the ferry issue with him. I am obviously disappointed that there hasn’t been an increased emphasis on the incredibly unfortunate treatment of ferry users in British Columbia compared with ferry users in Eastern Canada,” Mr. Eby said.
“The fact that the federal government paid for an entire ferry built at the same shipyard for Eastern Canada, and that it is somehow a problem that BC Ferries users get access to a low interest loan, is bizarre.”
With a report from Ian Bailey