Ottawa should cancel its $1-billion loan for BC Ferries’ to buy new ships from the Chinese government, and help the B.C. government pull out of the deal to redirect the work within Canada or to an allied country, says Opposition Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre.

Poilievre made the comments while visiting Vancouver on Wednesday, saying it’s unacceptable for taxpayer money from both the provincial and federal governments to go to China at a time when it is attacking the country with tariffs and hostile to Canada internationally.

“The federal government under the Liberals has financed this deal that would see our money, our Canadian money, pay for Chinese-made ferries, without properly exploring how it could be done in Canada, or at least in partnership with other democratic countries that could favour Canada's economy,” Poilievre said in an interview.

“It's a terrible example, especially in these times when we're supposed to be bringing home production and paycheques to Canadians, to send billions abroad to a foreign dictatorship that uses slave labour, or at least very highly suppressed wages, to pay the price of producing the ships.

“We could do more of that work here in Canada, and that's what the federal government should favour.”

The federal government should help B.C. find such a plan, so that the province can then back out of the China deal, he added.

The comments come as the Conservatives push hard against the BC Ferries contract in Ottawa, recalling Parliament’s transportation........

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