Gov Lowkey Dropping Bank on Chinese Ships?! 🚢🇨🇳 No Cap!

The Deets

Aight, listen up, fam! The Canada Infrastructure Bank – that's a federal Crown corp, BTW – is dropping a cool $1 billion on BC Ferries. Why? So they can stunt with four brand new ships... built in China! 🚢🇨🇳

But here's where it gets spicy. Federal Transport Minister Chrystia Freeland is NOT feeling it. She's like, "Hold up, this ain't it. No federal funds should be used for this, period!" Apparently, she already asked if fed money was in the mix and wasn't tryna see it.

BC Ferries' CEO is kinda shook by the Minister's reaction. He's saying they signed the loan before the contract was sealed with the Chinese shipyard. He also claims they're saving major bank – like, $650 million in interest – by going this route. Plus, he lowkey pointed out that Canadian companies have been hiring Chinese shipyards to build ships for years. 🤷

Apparently, no Canadian companies even threw their hats in the ring for the contract. BC Ferries claims the Chinese shipyard had the strongest bid. The loan's gonna cover a big chunk of the ship costs. BC Ferries is gonna issue bonds to pay for the ferries.

BC's Ministry of Transportation is staying out of it, saying they had no say in the funding. A spokesperson for the federal Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities straight-up called the whole thing "extremely disappointing." 😬

And of course, politicians are chiming in. Some BC Conservative is saying they need to rethink the loan to protect Canadian jobs. The fed government's gonna emphasize the importance of supporting domestic industry. So yeah, it's a whole mess. Stay tuned for more tea!