The order approving BC Ferries’ four new ships puts the total project expenditure at “up to [ ],” with empty brackets where the figure should be. The next paragraph says the order and its amounts “shall remain confidential until completion of the project or such a later date as the Commissioner may determine.”
That is Order 25-01, dated March 14, 2025, and issued by BC Ferries Commissioner Eva Hage. Her office, the BC Ferry Commission, is the independent regulator that caps fares and must approve vessel spending over $50 million. Its release called BC Ferries’ five-ship application “the largest proposed capital expenditure in BC Ferries’ history.” She approved four.
On May 7, 2025, China Merchants Industry Weihai Shipyard won four contracts to build them, BC Ferries’ financial report says. The company’s June 2025 technical briefing had all four, since named the Summit Class, in service by summer 2031.
Who pays
In the three months to June 30, about 28 percent of BC Ferries’ revenue came from payments by the province, including a federal-provincial subsidy. The commissioner’s reasons put base government funding at $240 million, “$200 million from the Province and $40 million from the Federal government.” The province also committed $500 million over the current four-year fare term, the period for which the commissioner caps average fare increases.
BC Ferries’ September 30 submission, which the regulator will use to set price caps for the next term, says that money let the commissioner cap increases at 3.2 percent a year, down from a preliminary 9.2 percent. The funding “comes to an end” in March 2028. Public comment runs until February 28, 2027.
The arm’s-length federal Canada Infrastructure Bank adds a below-market loan, up to $690 million for the vessels. On the first $133 million, BC Ferries booked $56.4 million as “government funding to be recognized as an offset to the project costs” of the ships. That is an accounting value for the cheaper rate, not cash. BC Ferries chief executive Nicolas Jimenez said in June 2025 no one could “reverse engineer” the ships’ cost from the loan amounts, CBC reported.
Whose secret
The blackout isn’t a cabinet order. A Transport Canada note calls BC Ferries “a private company, not a provincial Crown corporation”; the BC Ferry Authority holds its sole voting share. The secrecy rests on the regulator’s order and company policy. “Costs are not being disclosed to protect future bids,” BC Ferries’ briefing says, adding that the fixed-price contract “is within the approval limits provided by the BC Ferries Commissioner.” Its fare submission plans two more Summit Class ships, with a shipyard contract expected in the fare term that begins in 2032. That submission also redacts the new-ship figures, down to Summit Class interest costs, along with figures for other projects such as Summit terminal electrification and the Horseshoe Bay program.
The commissioner published redacted reasons and ordered quarterly project reports to her on spending and schedule. The order doesn’t require them to be published, and they aren’t among the routine filings on fares and sailings her office posted this month.
She also refused a fifth vessel. Approving it “would be fiscally irresponsible,” Hage said. Her reasons say the project’s higher capital cost “will cause further upward pressure on future price caps and taxpayer support.” A consultant’s fare estimate for four ships, described as “for illustrative purposes only,” reads “approximately [ ] per year.”
BC Ferries and the commissioner’s office are covered by BC’s freedom-of-information law, though its business-confidentiality exception could apply to the price.
The campaign
Shipbuilding has become a campaign issue. On October 13, the BC NDP pledged to work with Ottawa on a new BC shipyard to “build the next generation of BC Ferries,” citing “up to $250 million available through the Strategic Investment Fund.” The Conservative platform would “Review current fleet renewal contracts,” saying, “We should not be building ships in China.” The Greens promise to “Build and maintain ships locally.”
Responding to a union-commissioned report in September, BC Ferries said building locally “is expected to cost significantly more,” the Times Colonist reported. “Two Canadian shipyards pre-qualified, but neither submitted a final proposal,” a BC Ferries spokesperson told The Free Press. Seaspan chief executive John McCarthy welcomed the NDP plan but said competitors pay “one-eighth of our wages,” and “We don’t subsidize shipbuilding in Canada today,” the North Shore News reported.
None of the three parties has priced a BC-built ferry. The price of the four ships ordered from China is confidential.
The open question
The province supplies most of the base funding, committed the $500 million and, by the commission’s account, sets service levels. Has it seen the approved price?