How soon we forget. Once again, big labour and business are teaming up to rip off taxpayers by demanding that British Columbians pay more money than necessary for ferries and retrofits. B.C. shipyards want preference in any refitting of existing ships or in tenders for new ones for the government-owned B.C. Ferry Corporation.

Time for some history. When the "superferries" were built in the early 1990s in B.C. shipyards, the vessels turned out to be popular but expensive. (And just because they were popular doesn't mean they couldn't have been built elsewhere.) Newspapers in the early 1990s reported that the shipyard jobs sustained by the superferry contract did not last.

In June 1994, then premier Mike Harcourt announced a ten-year $840 million shipbuilding plan, and that the ships must be built in B.C. only. The justification Government contracts would save BC's shipbuilding industry.

So now, for the third time in just over a decade, taxpayers are supposed to again give a preferred deal to local shipyards on the grounds that government contracts will help out the industry and preserve local jobs. If the government even considers that, taxpayers will overpay again; the taxpayer bailout would be the shipyard equivalent of Skeena Celluose, the chronic money-sucking mill that was kept afloat (on over 400 million taxpayer dollars) on the same weak justifications given to prop up B.C.'s shipyards with preferred contracts.

Doubt that If taxpayers are forced to overpay for necessary goods or services, it means, not coincidentally, that there is less cash available for other items governments spends money on: health care, schools, or in the case of BC Ferries itself, new ships.

For example, consider for a moment the estimate that B.C. could purchase ships cheaper offshore by a margin of 30 percent. And assume, as an example, that BC Ferries could spend $200 million to buy ships anywhere in the world. If instead, they are forced to pay a 30 percent premium for BC-built ships, taxpayers would have to shell out an additional $60 million. That, or buy fewer ships. Haven't we seen this movie before On both the superferries and the fast ferries

Besides, if every government had a provincial-only buying policy, the costs would be prohibitive. Imagine if the government declared that all of its leased cars must be built in BC. Costs to taxpayers would soar, as efficiencies of scale would be chucked out the window. How is this different for ferries (And keep in mind if all governments implemented such a policy, other provinces and governments worldwide would no longer purchase anything from BC companies.)

Moreover, in 2001, 1,101 business declared bankruptcy in B.C. Should government bail out every industry and every company in trouble Fact is, 27,000 jobs were created last month in British Columbia, and that didn't happen because the government micro-managed business and favoured one sector at the expense of taxpayers in general.

BC Ferries started the 1990s with a debt of $60 million. By the end of the 1990s, taxpayers swallowed over $1 billion in ferry debt, a good chunk of it because of political incompetence and because competition for building the best ships at the best price was a non-starter under the last government.
Job losses are a tragedy, and taxpayers, rightly, spend a small fortune to help transition people through unemployment should that occur. Money is also spent on re-training, and wherever a major industry or town is displaced, extra cash might even be justified for the transition.

But the B.C. government should stick to its guns on open tendering now and in the future. Taxpayers spent a fortune on fast ferries and other boondoggles in the 1990s, and have already done plenty for B.C.'s shipbuilding industry. No more special favours are warranted.