Former Transport Minister Chrystia Freeland will again appear before a parliamentary committee following a unanimous vote by its members, after new emails appear to reveal her department was aware weeks in advance that BC Ferries intended to use a $1 billion loan from the Canada Infrastructure Bank (CIB) to help purchase four vessels from a Chinese state-owned shipyard.
Emails reportedly exchanged in late April between BC Ferries president Nicolas Jimenez and Transport Canada deputy minister Arun Thangaraj detailed BC Ferries’ plans to contract a Chinese shipyard to build four new ferries, according to internal documents obtained by The Globe and Mail.
Freeland, who was transport minister at the time, had said she was “dismayed” and taken by surprise when BC Ferries announced its procurement plan in June. The emails suggest her department had known about the plan since at least April….