Juno News - Conservatives vote to investigate BC Ferries' China contract

00:00:00.000 the house of commons transportation committee is set to investigate the liberal government's

00:00:09.180 funding for four new bc ferries vessels which are being built by a chinese state-owned shipyard

00:00:15.840 a european company is criticizing canada over a defense contract for allegedly favoring a u.s

00:00:21.620 supplier finance minister francois philippe champaign tasked liberal cabinet ministers

00:00:26.680 with finding quote ambitious savings before the carny government's 2025 budget in september

00:00:34.240 hello canada it's wednesday july 9th and this is the true north daily brief i'm cosmon gerja and i'm

00:00:40.900 alex ultim we've got you covered with all the news you need to know let's discuss the top stories of

00:00:46.720 the day and the true north exclusives you won't hear anywhere else the house of commons transportation

00:00:55.220 committee has voted to launch an investigation into the liberal government's financing of four bc

00:01:00.820 ferries vessels built by a chinese state-owned shipyard the inquiry follows a conservative

00:01:07.580 motion approved monday that will compel testimony from deputy prime minister and finance minister

00:01:14.000 christia freeland infrastructure minister gregor robertson the ceo of the canada infrastructure

00:01:20.540 bank and the head of bc ferries the investigation centers on a one billion dollar low interest

00:01:27.460 financing package provided by the canada infrastructure bank funded by taxpayers to enable

00:01:34.360 bc ferries to acquire the new vessel from china merchants industry weihai shipyard a shipbuilder

00:01:41.420 operated by the chinese communist party government the conservatives have criticized the transaction

00:01:47.860 citing its impact on canada's domestic shipbuilding and steel sectors which are already facing pressure

00:01:54.320 due to an ongoing trade war with the u.s even though prime minister mark carney in the last federal

00:02:00.200 election pledged to implement by canadian standards for federal infrastructure funding

00:02:06.060 conservatives claim that this transaction resembles a previous case in 2017 when bc ferries received

00:02:12.720 28 million dollars in federal funding for new vessels that were ultimately constructed by a dutch

00:02:19.360 company in romania the federal government also provides bc ferries with over 37 million dollars in

00:02:26.780 annual baseline funding the shipyard selected for the latest order china merchants industry is described

00:02:34.140 by the company itself as a central government administered state enterprise the canada infrastructure bank

00:02:41.800 has not yet commented on the financing agreement the transportation committee's investigation will seek to clarify the federal government's role

00:02:50.940 in the contract and examine whether canadian procurement policies were followed testimony dates have not yet been announced

00:02:59.140 alex you're from bc and if you've been paying attention to the news here this story has been all over the place

00:03:07.980 but i don't think it has reached the national stage to the same magnitude so could you enlighten some of our listeners

00:03:18.020 who might not be from british columbia or just aren't paying attention to this how has the government here in bc

00:03:25.360 where the ndp are in power how have they justified contracting a chinese communist party owned shipyard

00:03:34.440 to complete this project so a fun bc fact for you bc ferries is actually the largest ferry operator

00:03:44.460 organization in the world with 45 different vessels ranging from small taxi ships to the large ferries that

00:03:51.620 transport thousands of people daily from vancouver to vancouver island in fact they transport about 61 000

00:03:58.500 passengers per day which should give listeners some concept of the large scale of bc ferries

00:04:06.140 it's not exactly clear how the bc government is justifying outsourcing the construction of these

00:04:14.120 ferries to china aside from the fact that we aren't capable of producing them in british columbia

00:04:19.140 that being said as you had noted the bc ferries has previously outsourced production of their ferries to

00:04:25.440 companies in poland and the netherlands and elsewhere in the world so i think that this might

00:04:31.840 be a communications issue for the bc government if they can explain clearly to their constituents

00:04:38.080 how this is a cost-saving measure um it may be more palatable but i don't think they've done a very

00:04:43.120 good job personally of justifying having a company that is owned by the chinese communist party

00:04:49.120 manufacture and develop ferries for british colombians

00:04:56.560 the federal government is facing criticism over a planned defense contract that one european

00:05:01.280 competitor says effectively guarantees the deal will go to a u.s supplier despite prime minister

00:05:06.480 mark carney's pledge to reduce canada's defense dependence on the united states

00:05:10.880 a single u.s based firm is expected to be the sole eligible supplier for a department of national defense

00:05:16.880 contract for night vision binoculars estimated to exceed 100 million dollars industry observers

00:05:23.280 point out that the technical requirements specifically the signal to noise ratio would

00:05:27.760 restrict the bidding to this one company the contract is anticipated to be awarded this week

00:05:32.960 french company fotonis which supplies night vision products to several nato allies has alleged that the

00:05:38.720 criteria are unique to canada and not in line with international standards in a statement the company said

00:05:44.480 repeated attempts to engage the government to revise the specifications have so far been unsuccessful

00:05:49.360 carney has made public commitments to diversify canada's defense partnerships including the signing

00:05:54.000 of a new security agreement with the european union in june the news follows a series of moves that appear

00:05:59.200 to contradict those ambitions in may carney confirmed canada is in talks to join the united states

00:06:04.480 proposed 175 billion dollar golden dome missile defense system u.s president donald trump later announced

00:06:11.520 canada would have to pay 71 billion to join the system at us 10 billion dollar increase from his

00:06:17.680 previous estimate cosmic in practice is further partnering with europe on defense a good idea in

00:06:23.040 your opinion no alex i don't think it's a good idea i don't think that canada should be partnering

00:06:29.600 let alone give up our defense security to unelected eu bureaucrats now the eu the way it's run the european

00:06:39.280 parliament uh has elected people and representatives of each country but in the terms of the executive

00:06:47.520 powers of the european union with regards to the european commission that's an appointed position and

00:06:55.680 the other thing about this defense pact which was signed last month is that there was no parliamentary

00:07:01.920 oversight it was mark carney single-handedly and the liberals deciding that canada would enter into

00:07:10.400 this agreement and beyond the signaling against the united states and the trump derangement syndrome that

00:07:19.680 underlines this type of thinking i don't see the benefit canada has in one way it could be looked at as

00:07:28.560 canadians canadians paying money to defend europeans because it is the europeans that face

00:07:37.360 a greater threat in terms of their borders and etc than canada does we have an atlantic ocean separating

00:07:46.160 us and europe is heavily invested in conflicts including the conflict in ukraine so to me it just seems like

00:07:54.560 putting taxpayers on the hook for billions more in european defense spending with little transparency

00:08:01.920 about where this money will go and how exactly it's going to benefit canada now with regard to this

00:08:10.160 specific deal uh it honestly just comes across as complaining from these european suppliers canada has

00:08:19.120 sourced a lot of its defense equipment from the united states including aircraft and actually the

00:08:25.040 partnership has been mutually beneficial because the united states does source certain military

00:08:32.400 industrial equipment from canada from companies like bombardier and obviously there are issues with

00:08:39.040 that because they're heavily subsidized as well but with regard to this i think it's just an example

00:08:45.840 of how carney likes to speak out of both sides of his mouth on one end he's giving concessions to donald trump

00:08:54.320 with regards to the digital services tax and uh all of the concessions he's made in the trade agreement

00:09:02.160 negotiations and on the other hand he likes to play in front of the world stage that he's somehow

00:09:08.480 standing up to trump and getting closer to the european union when i fail to see the advantage of such a deal or an agreement

00:09:23.280 finance minister francois philippe champaign has tasked liberal cabinet ministers with finding ambitious

00:09:29.280 savings before the carney government releases its 2025 budget slated for september when the house of

00:09:36.800 commons resumes according to two letters issued by champaign to ministers on monday program spending

00:09:43.600 is to be reduced by 7.5 in the fiscal year that begins april 1st 2026 followed by a 10 reduction in

00:09:52.800 2027 and a further 15 reduction in the 2028-2029 fiscal year champaign wrote quote you will be expected to

00:10:03.040 bring forward ambitious savings proposals to spend less on the day-to-day running of government and

00:10:09.280 invest more in building a strong united canadian economy the federal government will also conduct

00:10:15.840 a comprehensive expenditure review and create a new pre-budget process for ministers to request new

00:10:22.480 funding the letters were provided to the globe and mail by senior government officials whose identities

00:10:28.080 were not revealed champaign's second letter detailed the newly updated process for ministers to send

00:10:34.560 in their budget priorities ministers will now be required to clearly demonstrate how their budgets

00:10:40.480 would support the goals of prime minister mark carney's common mandate letter issued to cabinet

00:10:46.160 earlier this year additionally ministers will have to prove that efforts were made to find existing funding by

00:10:52.080 reallocating existing resources champaign's letter said the expenditure review will ensure that new

00:10:58.400 investments are quote anchored by a new fiscal plan that reduces spending on government operations

00:11:05.600 so we have the liberal government talking about cutting spending or at least reallocating spending

00:11:12.880 and it hasn't yet materialized canada continues to spend heavily and have a huge

00:11:20.400 federal government workforce that has expanded and ballooned under prime minister justin trudeau

00:11:27.920 but how come the media isn't fear-mongering about cuts to public services by the liberals whenever

00:11:35.120 a conservative uh pledges to balance the budget or to reduce canada's federal debt there's always pearl

00:11:43.520 clutching and cries that this is going to cut health care this is going to cut education

00:11:49.280 spending etc how come it's not the case right now oh it's a really good question cosmon and it touches

00:11:55.200 on the valid and often unexplored point in canadian political media discourse which is why are federal

00:12:03.120 liberal spending cuts not covered in the same intensity as hypothetical conservative cuts and there

00:12:10.800 are i think a few different reasons first the liberals have often branded themselves as defenders of

00:12:16.240 canada's unique sort of welfare state and cuts implemented by a progressive government as the

00:12:22.160 liberals like to conceive themselves as are therefore often framed as fiscal responsibility

00:12:27.600 or efficiency rather than downsizing for ideological reasons which is often how the media approaches

00:12:35.280 hypothetical conservative cuts as an example christia freeland's economic update in 2023

00:12:41.680 included 15 billion dollars in spending restraint and the media coverage emphasized that it was a move

00:12:48.880 of responsibility and to avoid inflation rather than calling it austerity which is often how they frame

00:12:56.080 hypothetical conservative cuts another reason is i would say the dissolution of the ndp is an official

00:13:03.360 party in the house of commons the ndp which would normally push back on liberal fiscal restraint has been

00:13:10.880 previously in a confidence and supply agreement with the liberals since 2022 but more recently they've

00:13:15.920 lost official party status and they no longer have the same leverage in the house of commons therefore

00:13:21.920 that they used to so in summary i would say that the media is not being critical of the liberals for

00:13:30.000 several different reasons another reason of course is that they're often ideologically in lockstep with the

00:13:36.400 liberal party and they're very much dependent on government subsidies to stay afloat we saw that

00:13:41.680 recently in a story that true north did on chorus entertainment the parent company for global news

00:13:48.320 receiving another large government subsidy so as the saying goes i think in a lot of these times

00:13:53.840 the media is reluctant to bite the hand that feeds them so to speak that's it for today folks thanks for

00:14:02.560 tuning in you can stay on top of new episodes every weekday by subscribing to the daily brief on itunes and

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Juno News - July 09, 2025

Conservatives vote to investigate BC Ferries' China contract

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