B.C. Ferries has awarded a $15-million contract to North Vancouver's Seaspan shipyards for the construction of a new cable ferry.
Construction on the 78-.5-metre ferry is scheduled to start in June. The ferry is expected to be finished and fully operational by the summer of 2015.
Seaspan was one of three shipyards short-listed for construction, along with one other shipyard from Vancouver and one from Seattle. B.C. Ferries' board of directors recently endorsed a recommendation to award the contract to Seaspan.
"It's a great project for us," said Brian Carter, president of Seaspan Shipyards.
Carter said the project presents an opportunity for their current workforce, which is in the process of completing 14 barges, to hone their skills before starting on the first federal offshore fisheries science vessel in October.
"It's a touch more complex than the barges we're building, so it introduces some trades that weren't being used on the barges," he said.
Mark Wilson, vicepresident of engineering at B.C. Ferries, said the corporation is pleased that its cable ferry will be built in B.C. When finished, the ferry will serve the Buckley Bay-Denman Island route and accommodate up to 50 vehicles and 150 passengers.
George MacPherson, president of the Shipyard General Workers Federation, said the construction of the new ferry would be good for the shipyard.
"I just think it's very good news," said MacPherson. "It's certainly good work to keep us going until the (national shipbuilding program) work starts up."
But Seaspan's decision to withdraw its bid to build three new intermediate class vessels for B.C. Ferries left MacPherson disappointed.
"I think that B.C. Ferries should have come and talked to the industry to see if there were other players that could step up and possibly put this together," said MacPherson. "I think that's bad news for the industry that we're going to see another three vessels go offshore."
Seaspan was the only Canadian shipbuilder shortlisted by B.C. Ferries to bid on construction of the larger intermediate class vessels.
Carter said the shipyard hoped it might be able to take on that work as well as the federal shipbuilding contract.
But he added, "we just weren't able to take that on in a responsible way, it would have been very risky for us. It's a great situation to have where you're having to kind of turn away work, but we do need in the coming years to be focused on that (national shipbuilding) work and those B.C. Ferries are just too big to slot in."
Now the ferry contracts will go to a short listed shipyard overseas in Norway, Germany, Poland or Turkey.
The Seaspan shipyards are currently undergoing a $200-million renovation project in order to facilitate the construction of around 17 federal ships, including up to 10 non-combat Canadian Coast Guard ships, three offshore fisheries science vessels and a polar icebreaker. Construction of the first non-combat vessel is set to begin in October.
