B.C. Ferries is seeking approval to build five new major vessels to help replace its aging fleet. The company is withholding cost estimates for now.
B.C. Ferries is embarking on what it describes as its “largest capital investment in the organization’s history.”
After facing problems with aging vessels in its fleet — breakdowns, delays and cancellations — the company has filed an application with the B.C. Ferries Commissioner to go ahead with building five new large vessels.
If approved, the vessels would be operational between 2029 and 2031, according to the company, serving routes between Metro Vancouver and Vancouver Island. B.C. Ferries would then retire four of its old vessels. Two more of these vessels are planned for later, bringing the total to seven by 2037.
On Friday, B.C. Ferries CEO Nicolas Jimenez was mum about projected costs for the project saying he didn’t want to interfere with the procurement process that is underway.
“All of the information around how much are the vessels going to cost, etc., is information that really is too early to put out into the market,” he said.
The Victoria Times Colonist has reported previously that in 2018, when B.C. Ferries initially announced plans to order five major vessels, the cost was estimated at between $700 million to $1 billion. Those plans were sidelined due to the pandemic, and costs of construction and procurement have soared since then.
Between now and 2028, fare increases are being capped annually at about three per cent after the provincial government allocated $500 million in 2023 to prevent higher rate increases. Jimenez has recently warned, however, that without a “sustainable funding model” fares might need to increase by 30 per cent in 2028 to keep up with growing costs.
Asked Friday if that was still the case, Jimenez said: “We’ve got time to work with the provincial government between now and when the next performance term starts (in 2028) to basically understand: What does the system need to run safely and in a way that responds to the population demand … and how do we balance affordability with the need for this renewal inside the system?”
Diana Mumford, chair of one of B.C. Ferries’ all-volunteer community advisory committees, said Friday the new vessel acquisitions are long overdue. She just wants to make sure costs are kept under control and that “Cadillac” ferries are avoided.
“We are in need of more modern vessels,” she said. “I don’t think we need ones with all the bells and whistles. … So I think that’s important that they purchase economically viable ones, rather than adding a whole bunch of things that will put fares up even more.”
Mumford continued to express dismay over the company’s recent decision to disband all the community advisory committees in 2025 in favour of getting public feedback through a “digital engagement” model.
Some volunteers have been serving on these committees for more than 20 years, Mumford said, and they’ve all been “summarily dismissed.”
“Why get rid of us? … Why throw everything out? Seems a little backwards because we do bring that community experience.”
Jimenez said the advisory committee model has been around since the 1990s and needed a reboot. Volunteers who served on those committees, he said, are welcome to help B.C. Ferries come up with a new engagement model that is more inclusive and captures the voices of people who might not be interested in attending a community meeting or town hall.
“Can we get more voices in the mix, people who would ordinarily or otherwise be excluded?” he said.
With files from Alec Lazenby