Nathan Cullen and NDP put pressure on Federal government for funding support for BC Ferries

Potential Funding for BC Ferries 
from Federal Infrastructure money 
was the subject of a letter 
by the NDP on Wednesday

The NDP MP for Bulkley-Skeena Valley, has joined up with other New Democrat MP's in the province to call on the new Federal Liberal government to extend its infrastructure funding program towards the needs of BC Ferries.

Nathan Cullen and six MP's representing electoral districts on Vancouver Island have forwarded a correspondence to Infrastructure Minister Amarjeet Sohi, seeking that the criteria for the New Building Canada Fund be expanded to allow for BC Ferries to access critical funding opportunities.

Cullen and the Vancouver Island MPs are looking to access money from the Federal fund to allow BC Ferries to reduce cost pressures at the British Columbia Ferry Corporation.

Particularly as BC Ferries looks to renew its fleet and develop terminals and address other capital costs associated with the transportation service that travels the coast of the province, providing a transportation link to a number of coastal and Island communities.

Additional funding assistance would provide a welcome bit of help for the North Coast, Central Coast and Haida Gwaii which have seen cutbacks and rising costs in recent years to routes serving this end of the BC Ferries service.

"As you may know, under the Harper Conservatives, the New Building Canada Fund ("the Fund") was not available to BC Ferries, which wished to seek funding for infrastructure, terminals, fleet upgrades and new vessels. British Columbia's ferry system is a critical transportation link for moving goods and people in coastal and remote communities and it connects the Trans-Canada Highway to Vancouver Island. As such, we believe that the coastal ferry system should be regarded in the same way as other key transportation links like roads and bridges." -- From a letter to the Federal Infrastructure Minister, seeking funding opportunities for British Columbia Ferries from the New Building Canada Fund.

The Federal NDP is looking to convince the new
Federal Infrastructure Minister to extend funding
from the New Build Canada Fund to BC Ferries

As we outlined earlier this year,  Mr. Cullen spoke to the topic in May of this year, bringing the issue to the attention of the House of Commons at that time.

You can learn more about the NDP efforts from this media release from Wednesday.

A full copy of the letter to Minister Sohi can be reviewed here.

More items related to British Columbia Ferries can be found on our archive page here.

Cross posted from the North Coast Review