Controversy over SeaBus construction overseas
Posted January 10, 2013 2:45 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – The battle over the math continues after TransLink‘s decision to build a new SeaBus overseas.
Since last month, local shipyard workers have taken the local transit authority to task for teaming up with a Dutch shipbuilding company to build a new vessel.
The union’s George MacPherson claims TransLink failed to go after federal funding that would have helped a local bid. “You can apply for up to 15 per cent of the value of the vessel, provided you’re going to build it in Canada.”
But TransLink’s Derek Zabel says the federal cash still wouldn’t have been enough to make the local bid cheaper than the overseas one.
“The actual SeaBus is 90 per cent funded by the federal government through the federal gas tax program. So, that federal assistance fund would have only applied to 10 per cent of the boat.”
Regardless, the union is calling on the federal and provincial governments to step in to force the SeaBus to be built locally.
The shipbuilding contract is worth $25 million. Last month, TransLink said it had received three bids on the proposal and Netherlands-based Damen Shipyards Group submitted a bid that was $2 million less than Allied Shipbuilders Ltd. which is based in North Vancouver. The third bidder was disqualified.
