BC Ferries Needs Strong, Transparent Governance Before Receiving Any Funding
NDP MP Gord Johns’ campaign for equal federal ferry funding has drawn enthusiastic support among ferry-dependent communities. However, it is heading for the same dead end Premier David Eby reached when Ottawa flatly turned down his appeal for federal funding equity for BC Ferries (BCF) last year. Ottawa clarified the 43% funding equity is limited to interprovincial ferry systems, not internal systems (CBC News). MP Johns seeks only to increase the province’s current $38.8 million annually under the supplementary 1977 federal-provincial agreement, which is free from federal audit on condition that the province assumes sole governance for coastal ferry services.
However, when BCF was converted from a Crown to an independent corporation in 2003, responsibility for oversight shifted from BC’s Ministry of Transportation to the independent Ferry Commissioner and Authority regulators—a move that multiple political groups claim shields government from accountability for BCF’s record-breaking debt, declining service and hiking fares from 5%–33% that exceed the 3% fare increase cap per fiscal cycle—due to a 5% fuel surcharge to 2028 and reservation fees for increasing reserved spaces from 80% to 100% on some short and long routes.
Driving BCF’s debt are escalating repair expenses not only for the ageing vessels, as CEO Nicolas Jimenez repeatedly defends, but for every vessel launched since 2008, due to the 2023 Shirocca report exposé of BCF structurally excluding Canadian shipyards from bidding by accepting low foreign bids that defer design-failure repair expenses to the future. Commissioned by Seaspan Shipyards to provide options for creating 10,000 jobs by building new vessels in BC, it was leaked to the federal standing committee examining BCF’s awarding the contract to a Chinese government shipyard. Eastern internal ferry systems, however, are challenged only by severe weather and ice and are rigidly governed and audited by respective provincial ministries of transportation.
Premier David Eby and CEO Jimenez blame underfunding for BCF’s fiscal and performance issues, claiming governance is strong (Times Colonist, Dec. 25, 2025). Whereas an authentic independent corporation would restructure or go bankrupt, BCF increases fares and solicits ever-increasing government funding. BCF warns of fare hikes in excess of 30% in two years due to a debt that excludes the $1 billion federal loan for the Chinese-built vessels and the $42 million Richmond facility budget overrun.
The Green Party, the ferry union, the Union of BC Municipalities and the Canadian Taxpayers Federation have lobbied for BCF to be returned to the Ministry of Transportation where it can be audited and held responsible. Green Party leader Emily Lowan condemned corporate independence as an escape valve to deflect blame for chronic service cancellations. The Greens propose reinstating BCF as a Crown corporation, advocating for an exhaustive operational review and prioritising community accessibility.
The Conservatives’ fix is to overhaul BCF from within by immediately firing CEO Jimenez and top executives and establishing a BC Ferries Charter that clarifies performance metrics and anchors executive pay to service reliability. This proposal, however, preserves the same corporate model and Coastal Ferry Act amendments, which since 2003 shield BCF, regulators and government from accountability.
Under Premier Eby’s leadership, provincial taxes have escalated from one of the lowest to the second highest in Canada. Immediately after he announced Budget 2026, which sinks billions into expanding LNG production for the Asian market, credit agencies downgraded BC’s credit rating for the fourth time in five years, citing weak governance and management. Currently, every provincial taxpayer pays $1,150 towards debt interest alone, which strips funding from eroding core services.
Analysts slammed Premier Eby’s defence that expanding LNG would be fiscal salvation by attracting investment. They warned that the current global LNG glut, volatile market, cheaper foreign sources, and Asia shifting to renewables will strand LNG assets. Moreover, LNG is not green, as Premier Eby promotes. Methane, the second-largest contributor to global warming, escapes from fracking through to combustion. The cost to taxpayers of increasing global warming is incalculable.
BCF’s problem is not underfunding. Ask MP Johns to condition all funding on returning BCF to the Ministry of Transportation where it can be audited and held accountable like the successful eastern ferry system. Until then, how much more can taxpayers and ferry-dependent communities bear for provincial and BCF governance weaknesses?
Sharon Small, Denman Island
