North Vancouver - Dear Editor: More than one person has written to the North Shore News to express dismay tha t TransLink did not commission a local supplier to build the new SeaBus, the Burrard Otter II.
North Vancouver - Dear Editor: More than one person has written to the North Shore News to express dismay tha t TransLink did not commission a local supplier to build the new SeaBus, the Burrard Otter II. Why, they wonder, shouldn't that money - TransLink spent $22 million, according to their Buzzer blog - have stayed in B.C. to provide local jobs and flow on tolocal businesses? I can think of three reasons why TransLink was right not to buy locally: 1. It's not TransLink's mandate to support local industry or provide local jobs. Rather, they are responsible for public transportation in the Lower Mainland, and have many projects that need funding. Every extra dollar spent on one project is a dollar they can't spend on something else that also needs doing.Therefore they have a duty to economize and not to spend any more than necessary on any one acquisition. Damen, the Dutch shipyard that won the contract, submitted a bid that was $2 million lower than that submitted by North Vancouver's Allied Shipbuilders. That's a $2-million head start on some other transportation project.2. The money spent is not lost to Canada. The $22 million that Damen got for the ship is Canadian money that can only finally be spent in Canada. It will make its way home to be exchanged for exports of Canadian goods and services.3. Playing favourites with bidders would invite reprisals. If TransLink had rejected the winning bid from the Dutch supplier in favour of a second-or third-best bid from a local provider, then the local provider - and other Canadian firms - might find themselves shut out of bidding for projects in Holland and elsewhere. You would have Canadian firms submitting winning bids, only to be told "no thanks."Protectionism is a hostile policy. Like all bad economic policies, it does provide short-term gains to a small group, in this case a local business and its suppliers. But this is at the expense of the long-term competitiveness and prosperity of the city, province, country, and world as a whole. Like scratching a mosquito bite, it's tempting and can be hard to resist, but nonetheless, wise people resist it.Paul VitolsNorth Vancouver
