Despite the B.C. NDP government’s denials, a recently uncovered report reveals that local shipyards were capable of building BC Ferries’ new vessels two years ago.
Taking the "lowest global bid" on anything is a perfectly one-dimensional decision and should automatically be distrusted.
I was an Ottawa resident at the time a "lowest bid" contact for Light Rail Transit was force-fed to us by the combination of a Liberal mayor, Doug Ford, and mostly Justin Trudeau. That contract was awarded to SNC Lavelin (one of Trudeau and the Liberal's main piggy banks). The terms of the contract would probably be classified as criminal in any other modern country. With zero checks and balances, SNC followed its standard practice of commissioning the cheapest, least reliable sub contractors available, and buying the cheapest, least reliable, Tinker Toy trains on the market. Lavelin has no core competencies of their own, they are middle-men only.
As one quick example of many, these trains have been beset by "Square Wheel Syndrome" from day one. I am not making that term up. That is the Municipal government's excuse for the relentless breakdowns. For a complete understanding of the comic-farce aspect of this system, a pre-contract study of an identical LRT system was required. That study was conducted in Houston, Texas. Houston winter? Ottawa winter? That should require no comment. Talk about 'gilding the lily'.
Needless to say - but I will - the system has been an unmitigated, relentless disaster from concept, to planning, to installation and operation, from Day One. And the euphemistic "cost over runs" - which seem to be automatic and expected in any major infrastructure project in Canada - are staggering.
This is the type of thing you get from "low bidder" projects. It's alright if you accept the low bid on something like a bus, or a small building, or a toaster oven, but not major infrastructure items. These require serious, professional research, and should be kept out of the hands of politicians.
Thanks for explaining the SNC Lavelin scandal better than I've ever read before! We need to vote in politicians who want the best for Canada and Canadians "down the road" and not something that's going to fall apart in 5 minutes and need expensive patch jobs forever! Get it right the FIRST time, eh?!
That sounds logical..for Canada and Canadians..but illogical for our "Leaders"..who only see personal $$$ as logical..This wud be perfect timing for the Yellowstone Caldera to have a Biblical Eruption.. wipe the slate clean..and begin a do-over... in about 10.000 years..👍🤣
re talking about the city of Edmonton. Years of trying to make the expensive peace of junk work. I don't think it works very good yet. While another line fell apart on the first trial run.
Sounds just like Ottawa. All the officials were amazed that the system simply would not work in Ottawa's winter, what with all the snow and ice and -40 temperatures. Played Hell with the overhead catenary power lines. I mean, who could have foreseen that ice on power lines would be an issue? After all, it wasn't a problem in Houston. Criminal morons are running our country, at every level, including the municipal.
The WORST thing about the LRT Contract is that the SNC-Lavalin Consortium’s proposal DID NOT MEET the technical specifications! It was below the criterion for acceptance AND there were other firms who met and exceeded the criterion. How then, did SNC-Lavalin get awarded the contract? In my vivid imagination, I examine a phone call from the PMO or from Justin himself to then-Mayor Jim Watson suggesting that if the City wanted federal funds to flow to the LRT, a certain consortium should be awarded the contract. Given what we all saw Justin Trudeau do to advantage SNC-Lavalin and what is on the public record about their tendency to bribe officials, I think this is in all likelihood what DID happen! It would be bad enough if SNC-Lavalin had done a half-ways decent job, if they’d met their deadlines, if the trains had worked in winter weather… but it’s been a litany of technical problems(Go Figure!) and delays since the outset and people in Ottawa are still paying for it, while being unable to trust the system to get them to work on time!
Exactly right. And here's what's even worse. Larry O'brien was Ottawa's mayor prior to Watson. There was a public plebiscite on the need for an LRT. Ottawa citizens voted 68% against any LRT, period. There were many other less expensive, viable options. But all Lavelin and Trudeau did was wait for the next election where they managed to install Watson. There was zero talk of an LRT during his campaign. But as you might guess, immediately after donning the mayoral robes, Watson conspired to ignore the public's wishes, and between him,Trudeau, and Lavelin, managed to shove it down our throats. The initial cost proposal was $2bn. That cost is now on the north side of 10bn and rising. For something that does not work, and is an order of magnitude worse than the old system. Watson, immediately after coercing the city council to vote it in actually went on camera a wept, tears of joy. There's no telling how much he received from Lavelin for this. I probably can't count that high.
It's worth noting, considering Trudeau's androgynous sexual nature, that Watson, an avowed Liberal, was rumoured to be gay. When the magnitude of the LRT fiasco became evident, he publicly outed himself. Totally unnecessary, everyone already knew. I had the great misfortune of attending two charity lobster dinners where he was in attendance. His retinue consisted mainly of likewise sexually ambiguous teen age boys, none of whom appeared to be over 16.. His "outing" himself was simply to garner the sympathy vote from a Liberal populace and deflect from the mushrooming problems with the LRT.
I know that makes me sound bigoted, but I can handle that. I've noted in other posts on Juno that being a sexual minority seems to be a prime qualification for anyone in the Liberal hierarchy and I will defend that. Work or life experience or competence is not a requirement.
The farce called " Team Canada ", continues to prove itself as nothing but more virtue signalling with BC and the hallowed province at the center of it.
Not that all governments don’t get exposed for lying from time to time, but the leftist brands of governments not only lie with abandon but get caught regularly. So….with all the reason BC Ferries COULD have been built locally, why do you suspect David Eby chose to build in China? He’s no longer the fresh-faced Marxist he once was, his scowl and displeasure at EVERYTHING shows through in his appearance more so with each passing scandal. Of course, scandals with his government only happen on days that end in Y, don’t they?
Why is this considered a done deal? Canada backed out of deals with the USA over military planes. Sure, there would be penalties but considering the loss to our economy/jobs, it would be palatable. If we had a Prime Minister with a true allegiance to Canada, this deal would be cancelled. Imagine if this whole scenario were playing out with the USA making this deal with China. Sure as hell, Donald Trump would end it.
This is BS from start to finish. Everyone with a hand in this deal needs to be fired. And that includes the slippery liar Freeland. But knowing how inept the provincial and federal gov'ts are, they've probably paid China already.
This government has become and is continuing to be too cozy with PRC. When are they going to wake up. If we are going to pay out billions in the federal loans, let us pay them to ourselves. We have the expertise and the technology
I believe that having the capacity to do things is a security issue. So being able to build boats is a national security issue, and is far more important than having F35's that spend more time maintenance than flying.
Having the ability to build things means having people who build things every day, which means local markets that support this by buying what is made locally, and sourcing materials & parts locally. Everything from the steel, to the engines, to the fittings in the kitchens. If we do not have this, we are not secure.
In other words, we need competent trades people who are well paid, and small to medium businesses able to provide the instructure to support industry capable of building Ferries & other large ships. Ideally, several so that when a contract comes up we have a competitive bidding process. (That means that we have to be able to build everything from fishing boats to icebreakers.)
Canadians need to ignore the mirage of differing political parties at election time. Regardless of the team jersey politicians are wearing, they are in either of 2 camps: globalists or nationalists. The media pretends that globalists don't exist and demonize nationalists by slandering them as populist (as if being popular with citizens is a bad thing).
Globalists have a hidden agenda of restricting innovation & progress, and impoverishing the masses. They want a return to feudalism. Of course they can't say that out loud so they disguise their policymaking with the language of the Green New Deal, or of protecting us from bogiemen, like hate-speech or terrorism. That's why they cancel pipelines, helping to keep our resources in the ground. That's why they roadblock attempts to unify the country with high-speed rail. That's why they have scaled back Canada's once world leading nuclear energy technology. That's why the sign trade agreements that favour global corporations over local manufacturers.
Trudeau & Carney are Liberal globalists. Eby & Singh are NDP globalists. Ford is a PC that is towing the globalist line. Ditto for Legault in Quebec. All different parties but with the same agenda.
Nationalists want resource and technological development to help stimulate economic progress, provide jobs, and improve the lives of the citizenry - the antithesis of the globalist agenda. That's what makes them populists - that's an agenda that resonates with the population. That's also why our globalist media demonize them. Leaders like Poilievre, Rustad in BC or Moe in Sask., and Danielle Smith in Alberta.
The owners of Canada, the Laurentian elite, are fully on board with the globalist agenda being pushed by their Anglo-American bankster masters. Those people are jealous of the control the Chinese Communist Party has over their people and want the same here. That's why they are happy to do business with them.
It's not incompetence that led the Eby government to move production to China. Neither was it coincidence that Carney's 1st official act after being sworn in as PM was to visit and pay homage to King Charles, the figurehead of the globalist movement.
Next time you are called to cast a ballot, ignore the party affiliation of the candidates and pay close attention to their priorities. If they don't have a concrete agenda to create jobs & prosperity for the people, they are not on your side.
If Jean Charest had won the leadership instead of Poilievre, would you still be saying that? Taking Charest out of the dust bin of history in an attempt to derail Poilievre was a globalist maneuver. If Charest was leader, the Conservatives would be getting good press because the banksters wouldn't care if he or Carney was PM. A win/ win for globalists.
Vote for the man, not the Party.
And don't think that there aren't globalist backstabbers in the PC party right now looking to undermine Poilievre. The banksters have their creeps everywhere. The federal bureaucracy is choking on them.
That's about as complete and accurate a description of our political reality as I've read. That there are people out there, who truly understand what is going on, is the main reason for the Government's (WEF) relentless efforts to stifle free speech and criminalise criticism
of their actions. This Orwellian policy is already in place in Carny's alma mater, Great Britain.
They have already imprisoned several hundred people for ignoring the law and exercising free speech. And it's all coming to a courtroom near us, in Canada.
This conflict reveals a structural constraint. The Canadian Free Trade Agreement and international trade deals restrict governments from mandating domestic content in procurement. The system legally prioritizes the lowest global bid over local economic benefits, tying the province's hands regardless of internal reports.
If that's true--and I take you at your word that it is--then it's all the more disgraceful that the politicians who expressed surprise and dismay did so, knowing not only that their reactions were performative, but also that the whole system was rigged (constrained) from the very start.
When the scent of a change of management in the wind it is good to figure out who the new boss might be and start building a relationship. That is what a Eby is doing with China.
Taking the "lowest global bid" on anything is a perfectly one-dimensional decision and should automatically be distrusted.
I was an Ottawa resident at the time a "lowest bid" contact for Light Rail Transit was force-fed to us by the combination of a Liberal mayor, Doug Ford, and mostly Justin Trudeau. That contract was awarded to SNC Lavelin (one of Trudeau and the Liberal's main piggy banks). The terms of the contract would probably be classified as criminal in any other modern country. With zero checks and balances, SNC followed its standard practice of commissioning the cheapest, least reliable sub contractors available, and buying the cheapest, least reliable, Tinker Toy trains on the market. Lavelin has no core competencies of their own, they are middle-men only.
As one quick example of many, these trains have been beset by "Square Wheel Syndrome" from day one. I am not making that term up. That is the Municipal government's excuse for the relentless breakdowns. For a complete understanding of the comic-farce aspect of this system, a pre-contract study of an identical LRT system was required. That study was conducted in Houston, Texas. Houston winter? Ottawa winter? That should require no comment. Talk about 'gilding the lily'.
Needless to say - but I will - the system has been an unmitigated, relentless disaster from concept, to planning, to installation and operation, from Day One. And the euphemistic "cost over runs" - which seem to be automatic and expected in any major infrastructure project in Canada - are staggering.
This is the type of thing you get from "low bidder" projects. It's alright if you accept the low bid on something like a bus, or a small building, or a toaster oven, but not major infrastructure items. These require serious, professional research, and should be kept out of the hands of politicians.
Thanks for explaining the SNC Lavelin scandal better than I've ever read before! We need to vote in politicians who want the best for Canada and Canadians "down the road" and not something that's going to fall apart in 5 minutes and need expensive patch jobs forever! Get it right the FIRST time, eh?!
That sounds logical..for Canada and Canadians..but illogical for our "Leaders"..who only see personal $$$ as logical..This wud be perfect timing for the Yellowstone Caldera to have a Biblical Eruption.. wipe the slate clean..and begin a do-over... in about 10.000 years..👍🤣
Sounds like you
re talking about the city of Edmonton. Years of trying to make the expensive peace of junk work. I don't think it works very good yet. While another line fell apart on the first trial run.
Sounds just like Ottawa. All the officials were amazed that the system simply would not work in Ottawa's winter, what with all the snow and ice and -40 temperatures. Played Hell with the overhead catenary power lines. I mean, who could have foreseen that ice on power lines would be an issue? After all, it wasn't a problem in Houston. Criminal morons are running our country, at every level, including the municipal.
Criminal morons = bureaucrats? Not all, but many, but it includes the Liberal Party and Eby.
Don't forget Dougie..(the guy who publicly poured out a bottle of Crown Royal..(after he filtered it thru his kidneys)..
You got that right.
Sadly Edmonton seems to have a habit of making “questionable” decisions.
How are those EV buses working out?
Yeah, not to good. I think they're using them for parts storage bins. LOL
The WORST thing about the LRT Contract is that the SNC-Lavalin Consortium’s proposal DID NOT MEET the technical specifications! It was below the criterion for acceptance AND there were other firms who met and exceeded the criterion. How then, did SNC-Lavalin get awarded the contract? In my vivid imagination, I examine a phone call from the PMO or from Justin himself to then-Mayor Jim Watson suggesting that if the City wanted federal funds to flow to the LRT, a certain consortium should be awarded the contract. Given what we all saw Justin Trudeau do to advantage SNC-Lavalin and what is on the public record about their tendency to bribe officials, I think this is in all likelihood what DID happen! It would be bad enough if SNC-Lavalin had done a half-ways decent job, if they’d met their deadlines, if the trains had worked in winter weather… but it’s been a litany of technical problems(Go Figure!) and delays since the outset and people in Ottawa are still paying for it, while being unable to trust the system to get them to work on time!
Exactly right. And here's what's even worse. Larry O'brien was Ottawa's mayor prior to Watson. There was a public plebiscite on the need for an LRT. Ottawa citizens voted 68% against any LRT, period. There were many other less expensive, viable options. But all Lavelin and Trudeau did was wait for the next election where they managed to install Watson. There was zero talk of an LRT during his campaign. But as you might guess, immediately after donning the mayoral robes, Watson conspired to ignore the public's wishes, and between him,Trudeau, and Lavelin, managed to shove it down our throats. The initial cost proposal was $2bn. That cost is now on the north side of 10bn and rising. For something that does not work, and is an order of magnitude worse than the old system. Watson, immediately after coercing the city council to vote it in actually went on camera a wept, tears of joy. There's no telling how much he received from Lavelin for this. I probably can't count that high.
It's worth noting, considering Trudeau's androgynous sexual nature, that Watson, an avowed Liberal, was rumoured to be gay. When the magnitude of the LRT fiasco became evident, he publicly outed himself. Totally unnecessary, everyone already knew. I had the great misfortune of attending two charity lobster dinners where he was in attendance. His retinue consisted mainly of likewise sexually ambiguous teen age boys, none of whom appeared to be over 16.. His "outing" himself was simply to garner the sympathy vote from a Liberal populace and deflect from the mushrooming problems with the LRT.
I know that makes me sound bigoted, but I can handle that. I've noted in other posts on Juno that being a sexual minority seems to be a prime qualification for anyone in the Liberal hierarchy and I will defend that. Work or life experience or competence is not a requirement.
Typical government makes work project. What's wrong with bigoted, I like that ,when it suits the purpose.
The farce called " Team Canada ", continues to prove itself as nothing but more virtue signalling with BC and the hallowed province at the center of it.
China IS NOT our friend but apparently they are good buddies the BC's NDP Government.
Not a surprise really.
BC claims to go the cheaper way, but still bans Chinese EVs.
Not that all governments don’t get exposed for lying from time to time, but the leftist brands of governments not only lie with abandon but get caught regularly. So….with all the reason BC Ferries COULD have been built locally, why do you suspect David Eby chose to build in China? He’s no longer the fresh-faced Marxist he once was, his scowl and displeasure at EVERYTHING shows through in his appearance more so with each passing scandal. Of course, scandals with his government only happen on days that end in Y, don’t they?
Why is this considered a done deal? Canada backed out of deals with the USA over military planes. Sure, there would be penalties but considering the loss to our economy/jobs, it would be palatable. If we had a Prime Minister with a true allegiance to Canada, this deal would be cancelled. Imagine if this whole scenario were playing out with the USA making this deal with China. Sure as hell, Donald Trump would end it.
This is BS from start to finish. Everyone with a hand in this deal needs to be fired. And that includes the slippery liar Freeland. But knowing how inept the provincial and federal gov'ts are, they've probably paid China already.
Inept is a good word for them. But you should include "criminal" to be more accurate.
This government has become and is continuing to be too cozy with PRC. When are they going to wake up. If we are going to pay out billions in the federal loans, let us pay them to ourselves. We have the expertise and the technology
The B.C. government could not be any more short-sighted or anti-Canada (especially B.C.) prospering! Shameful!!!
In bed with the Chinese much?!
Ok, so I believe in Localism.
I believe that having the capacity to do things is a security issue. So being able to build boats is a national security issue, and is far more important than having F35's that spend more time maintenance than flying.
Having the ability to build things means having people who build things every day, which means local markets that support this by buying what is made locally, and sourcing materials & parts locally. Everything from the steel, to the engines, to the fittings in the kitchens. If we do not have this, we are not secure.
In other words, we need competent trades people who are well paid, and small to medium businesses able to provide the instructure to support industry capable of building Ferries & other large ships. Ideally, several so that when a contract comes up we have a competitive bidding process. (That means that we have to be able to build everything from fishing boats to icebreakers.)
Absolutely correct. We are a Maritime nation, with coastlines on three major oceans.
This is all because china owns BC. Eby Jeeby is like the con man, the appointed fool sitting in the control chair, following orders.
Incompetence and government go hand in hand at any level. Bureaucracy and politicians seem to think that taxpayers money is endless.
Canadians need to ignore the mirage of differing political parties at election time. Regardless of the team jersey politicians are wearing, they are in either of 2 camps: globalists or nationalists. The media pretends that globalists don't exist and demonize nationalists by slandering them as populist (as if being popular with citizens is a bad thing).
Globalists have a hidden agenda of restricting innovation & progress, and impoverishing the masses. They want a return to feudalism. Of course they can't say that out loud so they disguise their policymaking with the language of the Green New Deal, or of protecting us from bogiemen, like hate-speech or terrorism. That's why they cancel pipelines, helping to keep our resources in the ground. That's why they roadblock attempts to unify the country with high-speed rail. That's why they have scaled back Canada's once world leading nuclear energy technology. That's why the sign trade agreements that favour global corporations over local manufacturers.
Trudeau & Carney are Liberal globalists. Eby & Singh are NDP globalists. Ford is a PC that is towing the globalist line. Ditto for Legault in Quebec. All different parties but with the same agenda.
Nationalists want resource and technological development to help stimulate economic progress, provide jobs, and improve the lives of the citizenry - the antithesis of the globalist agenda. That's what makes them populists - that's an agenda that resonates with the population. That's also why our globalist media demonize them. Leaders like Poilievre, Rustad in BC or Moe in Sask., and Danielle Smith in Alberta.
The owners of Canada, the Laurentian elite, are fully on board with the globalist agenda being pushed by their Anglo-American bankster masters. Those people are jealous of the control the Chinese Communist Party has over their people and want the same here. That's why they are happy to do business with them.
It's not incompetence that led the Eby government to move production to China. Neither was it coincidence that Carney's 1st official act after being sworn in as PM was to visit and pay homage to King Charles, the figurehead of the globalist movement.
Next time you are called to cast a ballot, ignore the party affiliation of the candidates and pay close attention to their priorities. If they don't have a concrete agenda to create jobs & prosperity for the people, they are not on your side.
The Conservatives are the only option to get Canada back on track.
If Jean Charest had won the leadership instead of Poilievre, would you still be saying that? Taking Charest out of the dust bin of history in an attempt to derail Poilievre was a globalist maneuver. If Charest was leader, the Conservatives would be getting good press because the banksters wouldn't care if he or Carney was PM. A win/ win for globalists.
Vote for the man, not the Party.
And don't think that there aren't globalist backstabbers in the PC party right now looking to undermine Poilievre. The banksters have their creeps everywhere. The federal bureaucracy is choking on them.
That's about as complete and accurate a description of our political reality as I've read. That there are people out there, who truly understand what is going on, is the main reason for the Government's (WEF) relentless efforts to stifle free speech and criminalise criticism
of their actions. This Orwellian policy is already in place in Carny's alma mater, Great Britain.
They have already imprisoned several hundred people for ignoring the law and exercising free speech. And it's all coming to a courtroom near us, in Canada.
How much of kickback did the government or Eby get from this deal. If not actually cash, what else did he get from it?
This conflict reveals a structural constraint. The Canadian Free Trade Agreement and international trade deals restrict governments from mandating domestic content in procurement. The system legally prioritizes the lowest global bid over local economic benefits, tying the province's hands regardless of internal reports.
If that's true--and I take you at your word that it is--then it's all the more disgraceful that the politicians who expressed surprise and dismay did so, knowing not only that their reactions were performative, but also that the whole system was rigged (constrained) from the very start.
That didn't happen with the naval ships being built in Quebec. Turns out they were the most expensive.
When the scent of a change of management in the wind it is good to figure out who the new boss might be and start building a relationship. That is what a Eby is doing with China.
This is not new. We have known this for 2 years. The problem is that BCF needed all the new ferries 5 years ago, not 9 years down the road.