B.C. Ferries plans new wave of five big replacement ships
B.C. Ferries is heading into a major construction project to replace existing C-class ferries with five new vessels.
The company issued a request for proposals on Tuesday for naval architect engineering support to develop construction bid packages and to review proposals from shipyards.
This bidding opportunity is the first step in rolling out a new major-vessel construction bid package in the next couple of years, B.C. Ferries spokeswoman Tessa Humphries said.
“We don’t have a firm time line for the selection of a shipyard but it would follow the same process our other procurements do, with multiple steps,” she said in an email.
The five vessels would be replacements for the C-class ships, which were all built in B.C. Three were constructed in Vancouver and two in Victoria.
The first new vessel is expected to go into service by 2024, Humphries said.
Details such as expected costs are not available yet.
B.C. Ferries’ C-class is made up of Queen of Alberni, Queen of Coquitlam, Queen of Cowichan, Queen of Oak Bay and Queen of Surrey. All are 139 metres (456 feet) long. And all but the Queen of Surrey serve Vancouver Island, either at Departure Bay or Duke Point in Nanaimo.
Any construction plan is bound to reignite the decades-long discussion about where new vessels should be built. Unionized B.C. shipyard workers have consistently called for local construction to help support the province’s shipbuilding industry.
Chuck Ko, who heads Allied Shipbuilders Ltd. of North Vancouver, said it takes political will to see ferries built in B.C. “There’s no recognition of the social benefits of building ships in B.C.,” he said, adding such work would provide high-paying work.
Ko said he is unable to compete against high-volume Polish shipyards that pay workers lower wages. A Polish shipyard built the last batch of new vessels, the Salish class ferries.
As well, the federal government has decided to waive import duties on passenger vessels constructed overseas.
Further, the C-class ships are large and a vessel of that size would not fit in Allied’s yard. Allied would have to be part of a consortium that includes a firm with a larger facility in order to take part in construction of this magnitude, Ko said. He ruled out Seaspan’s Vancouver Shipyards because it is busy with existing federal contracts.
C-class ferries went into service in either 1976 or 1981, B.C. Ferries says.
Queen of Cowichan serves the Departure Bay-Horseshoe Bay route. It has room for 312 vehicles and 1,494 passengers and crew members.
Queen of Alberni has capacity for 280 vehicles and 1,200 passengers and crew. It runs between Duke Point and Tsawwassen.
Queen of Coquitlam has room for 316 vehicles and 1,494 passengers and crew. It runs out of Horseshoe Bay, serving Departure Bay, and it also goes to Langdale.
Queen of Oak Bay and Queen of Surrey can each carry 308 vehicles and up to 1,494 passengers and crew. Queen of Oak Bay runs between Departure Bay and Horseshoe Bay; Queen of Surrey serves Horseshoe Bay and Langdale.
The union for B.C. Ferries workers is complaining that the new Salish class vessels compromise safety by separating engine controls from the engines by five decks.
Eduardo Munoz, president of the ships officers component of the B.C. Ferries and Marine Workers’ Union, said until the Salish vessels arrived, ship’s engineers always had a control room inside or overlooking the engine room.
But the new Salish vessels have the control room five decks above the space where the ship’s engines run. If something goes wrong, an engineer can’t quickly be in the engine room and must leave the controls.
“The problem with this is you can’t see first-hand what’s going on in the engine room,” Munoz said.
Munoz, a former chief engineer, said the new vessels operate with one fewer engineer on board, three instead of four, making it even more likely nobody will be available to attend to engine problems.
The design is limited to the new vessels — Salish Orca, Salish Eagle and Salish Raven, which all arrived last year. They were built in Poland at a total cost of about $200 million, and are serving Comox-Powell River and Southern Gulf Islands routes.
Frank Camaraire, B.C. Ferries executive director of engineering, said the vessels were designed to have their engine-room controls separate from the machine space, a common feature in modern vessels.
Putting engine controls on a higher deck puts them closer to the bridge where the vessel is steered. This makes for quicker communication between vessel command and chief engineer.
Camaraire said B.C. Ferries and its vessels are in full compliance with Transport Canada regulations, and when it comes to staff levels, B.C. Ferries exceeds minimum federal requirements by one engineer.
Under federal regulations, B.C. Ferries is only required to have one chief engineer and one engine-room assistant. But the corporation is staffing Salish vessels with one chief, one assistant and one other certified engineering officer.
Camaraire said previous ferries operated with three certified engineering officers and one assistant. But their older technology required extra staff.
Now the chief will sit in the control room, monitoring and controlling the engines by using a computerized system. The other engineer and the assistant move about the vessel but will likely be found in the engine room.
“It’s where they are expected to be working and generally speaking it’s where they are working,” Camaraire said.
The issue of staff levels and distance from the engine room to the controls was brought up in Parliament. Sheila Malcolmson, NDP MP for Nanaimo-Ladysmith, raised the issues of staffing levels required by Transport Canada regulation and B.C. Ferries ship design in question period on June 12. “With engineers five decks above the critical machinery and steering equipment, this risks collision,” Malcolmson said. “Millions ride those ferries.”
Transport Minister Marc Garneau said any decisions about regulations are always made with careful analysis of potential risks. “Security and safety is my number one priority,” Garneau said.