B.C.'s newest ferry unsettles local shipbuilders

The newest member of B.C.'s ferry fleet arrived Thursday and the people who didn't get to build it are miffed. They'renow urging Ottawa to use the $82 million in import duties to support the province's shipbuilding industry.

The Coastal Renaissance is the first of three ships to be built in Germany by the Flensburger Shipyard, with a total price tag of $524 million, whichincludes taxes, financing and management costs.

The federal NDP and the union representing shipyard workers are calling for the import duties imposed on the three German-built vessels, two of whichhave not yet been delivered,to be handed over to the B.C. shipbuilding and repairindustry.

Peter Julian, the NDP MP for Burnaby-New Westminster, said "about 5,000 direct and indirect local jobs were lost by the short-sighted provincial government investment in the German shipbuilding industry, rather than supporting B.C. jobs.

"Every penny of the $82 million import duty that is fixed on this vessel must be put towards B.C.'s shipbuilding and repair industry. It is the only fair way to ensure that our shipbuilding industry is not completely gutted," he said.

At the time, BC Ferries and the B.C. government refused to allow Vancouver Shipyards to participate in the final bidding process. The contract was awarded to the German company in September 2004.

George McPherson, president of the B.C. Shipyard General Workers Federation, said the arrival of the new ferry has opened old wounds.

He said B.C. workers could have done the work on budget and on time but BC Ferries chose to create 5,000 jobs in Europe instead.

"The Flensburger yard was a bankrupt shipyard and the reason it's able to compete in the manner it does today is simply because the government invested in it," McPherson said.

"This is money that should come back into the industry."