Editor:
Premier David Eby has sunk to a new low. His decision to approve BC Ferries’ purchase of new vessels from a state-owned ship builder in China is unprincipled, unethical and unlikely to save money (or time) in the long run. We should minimize our business relations with China, not sign billion-dollar contracts with a country that routinely violates the rules of international trade and delivers low quality products late. Check with the builders of the Pattullo bridge replacement –– a project now two years late and a quarter of a billion dollars over budget, mainly due to low quality steel and other products from China.
It’s one of many examples. Did we learn nothing when China stole Canadian intellectual property, then reneged on a cooperation agreement to develop a COVID-19 vaccine at the start of the pandemic?
The oppressive and repressive government of China is actively engaged in genocide against the Uyghur people in Xinjiang, has an appalling human rights record, employs forced labour in all sectors of their economy and is supplying and financing Russia’s war against Ukraine. They held Canadians hostage for three years in an act of brutal bullying against the rule of law. At some point principled decisions need to be made in our business relations with China. Eby seems to think otherwise.
Eby and this government, in office for eight years now, knew that BC Ferries needed to purchase several new vessels over the next decade. Yet they did nothing to stimulate or expand BC’s ship building capacity. This is a self-inflicted wound. Buying from a European shipbuilder or a democratic country in Asia (South Korea, Japan, Singapore, etc.) might have looked more expensive at first glance, but that’s unlikely over the project life cycle, given China’s lousy record on quality and cost control.
Shameful.
Keith Maxwell
Sechelt
