Through the Canada Infrastructure Bank (CIB), the federal government is providing financial support to BC Ferries for its forthcoming expansion of the Island Class fleet.
The federal Crown corporation will provide the ferry company with a $75 million low-cost loan to help finance the acquisition of four battery-electric ferries and the installation of the associated charging infrastructure.
“This partnership between the Canada Infrastructure Bank and BC Ferry Services is an incredible first step towards the electrification of one of the world’s largest ferry networks,” said Ehren Cory, CEO of CIB, in a statement on Wednesday.
The new additional four Island Class vessels and charging infrastructure will be ready for service by 2027.
This will grow BC Ferries’ Island Class fleet to 10 vessels, including the first six new vessels that progressively went into service between 2020 and 2022.
Island Class vessels are small ships dedicated to serving minor coastal routes. Each existing Island Class vessel holds up to 400 passengers and about 50 vehicles. These vessels are currently hybrids, but with further investment, they can be converted to fully battery-electric ships.
In January 2024, after conducting an international procurement process, BC Ferries selected Netherlands-based Damen Shipyards Group to build the four new ships. Damen also previously built the first six Island Class vessels.
BC Ferries’ third Island Class vessel arriving at Victoria Inner Harbour on July 22, 2021. (BC Ferries)
According to CIB, the ferry company will repay the Crown corporation from its operating revenues comprised of fares, food, beverage, and retail.
“Our partnership with the CIB to deliver these new Island Class vessels will increase system capacity, improve our flexibility to move ships across routes and make it easier to train and deploy our teams. It’ll also help us achieve important environmental benefits. All of this increases our passengers’ confidence we’ll get them where they need to go in a safe, reliable and environmentally conscious way,” said Nicolas Jimenez, President and CEO of BC Ferries.
The ferry company is also set to begin the procurement process for acquiring up to seven new additional large vessels to replace aging vessels and expand capacity on the major routes between Metro Vancouver and Vancouver Island. These future large ships will be hybrid electric designed for future conversion to full battery-electric, with the expectation that the first of these large ships will arrive in 2029.
To date, some of CIB’s largest loans include $2 billion towards Greater Toronto’s GO commuter rail expansion project and $1.3 billion towards Montreal’s new REM metro rail system.
BC Ferries’ first two Island Class hybrid-electric vessels loaded onto the Sun Rise for delivery from Romania to BC on November 20, 2019. (BC Ferries)