John Rustad’s B.C. Conservative plan for B.C. Ferries unveiled Thursday was overshadowed by a nasty old social media post from one of his candidates.
Brent Chapman unloaded some vicious remarks about Palestinians and Muslims 10 years ago, then apparently forgot all about them when he decided to run for the Conservatives. His post popped up again Thursday — as they always seem to do — by way of CKNW’s Jas Johal, and Rustad was forced again to the defensive on an incendiary, sensitive topic.
It turns out Chapman is now deeply sorry for the remarks, has apologized to the two Muslims in the party’s field of candidates, to Rustad, to Rustad’s Muslim chief of staff and to Muslims and Palestinians in general.
He said he no longer holds the beliefs, and the party says he has made meaningful relationships with Muslims in Canada.
That’s a good idea, given that a sizeable percentage of Surrey, where he’s trying to win a seat, is Muslim. Rustad has accepted the apology and will stand against hate “every step of the way … so all people can see B.C. as a welcoming place for them to be able to build a future.”
He plans to do that with Chapman still on his team.
His views aren’t worth repeating, except that one of them is so ironic it can’t be avoided.
He called Palestinians “inbred, walking, talking time bombs.”
Turns out Chapman was the time bomb, as far as B.C. Conservatives are concerned.
Rustad did the best he could trying to defuse it. But most of the questions after his B.C. Ferries announcement were about Chapman’s post.
That leaves questions about his plans for the ferry system unanswered. There are more than a few.
His “fix” for the service stresses holding the corporation accountable, with a new charter that would outline performance and service expectations.
But there’s nothing new about that. There’s already a massive 100-page service contract between the corporation and B.C. government that stipulates everything right down to how often the Mill Bay-Brentwood Bay ferry sails.
Rustad did add a new wrinkle — he’ll fire the leadership of the B.C. Ferry Authority if they don’t live up to the charter.
But some of the patronage appointments — notably former NDP cabinet minister Joy MacPhail — would likely be replaced regardless of performance.
One intriguing idea is a new monthly flat-fee for frequent users to improve certainty and eliminate the hassle of continually buying tickets.
The promise is to “consult” on the idea, not implement it. It looks more applicable to the smaller routes.
Another even more intriguing concept is “small electric autonomous ferries for walk-on passengers.” That’s one way to solve the problem of crew shortages — eliminate crews entirely. Federal officials require minimum staffing levels for ferries, and they would have something to say about this.
Rustad promises to “fight for B.C.’s share of federal support for fleet modernization and improvements.”
That goes without saying.
A big question left hanging is about how to renew the fleet — should new ships be built in B.C. or bought from foreign shipyards?
The Conservative position teases the popular but vastly more expensive first option, but tiptoes around committing to it.
It says B.C. now has an established major shipbuilding industry and a sophisticated supply chain in place. So “a domestic content scenario within a fully competitive and open procurement process” would be established.
That would allow bids from all over to be evaluated with and without B.C. suppliers. The full extent of benefits to B.C. would be evaluated alongside lowest-bid (foreign) scenarios.
It’s basically what Seaspan Shipyards (4,000 employees in Victoria and North Vancouver) asked for last month, when it declared it couldn’t respond to B.C. Ferries’ newest request for proposals because the lowest bid is the main criterion.
In recent history, B.C. Ferries has ordered ships from Poland, Germany and the Netherlands, by way of Romania. A private analysis by the company a few years ago calculated that building in B.C. would at least double the prices the European yards charge.
The Conservative concept would — presumably — make public all the benefits to building ferries in B.C. Determining whether they are worth the considerable extra cost would come later.
B.C. Ferries’ need for a huge hike in the taxpayer subsidy arising from its long-range financial position — detailed here earlier — was left for another day.
You can only deal with one time bomb at a time.
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