Premier David Eby vowed to make good on his promise:
” Whenever we get a chance, and as a directive of government, I will ensure we’re buying Canadian, that we’re buying British Columbian, and that we are our own best customer,” Eby said while campaigning last week.
At the Union of BC Municipalities’ convention in September, he also promised ““I will be directing BC Ferries to ensure that the next generation of BC Ferries vessels will be built right here in British Columbia.”
That came after considerable backlash to BC Ferries’ announcement … pre-election call … it awarded a $1.6-billion contract to a Chinese firm to build four new BC ferries.
In an almost laughable counterpoint, the Premier reminded UBCM delegates, however: “BC Ferries now uses 100 per cent B.C. eggs, and 60 per cent of all of the food you find on BC Ferries comes directly from British Columbia.”
What Eby did not mention is where BC Ferries purchases its fuel … that costs it about $150 million a year!
“At a time when British Columbia Premier David Eby is championing buying Canadian, BC Ferries may be preparing to enter a multi-year agreement to buy fuel from an American-owned company with strong ties to U.S. President Donald Trump and the governing Republicans,” The Tyee revealed Thursday.
Reporter Andrew MacLeod noted that BC Ferries has been seeking “a single proponent to supply fuel starting Oct. 1 for up to eight and a half years”.
The current BC Ferries fuel supplier is the Parkland Corporation.
“Parkland, which is based in Alberta and has supplied fuel to BC Ferries for many years, sold last year for US$9.1 billion to Sunoco LP, a large U.S. fuel distribution company headquartered in Dallas, Texas,” The Tyee told its readers.
“Sunoco is in turn controlled by Energy Transfer LP, whose co-founder and executive chairman, Kelcy Warren, is a major financial supporter of President Trump,” MacLeod wrote.
“Following the purchase, Sunoco reportedly laid off hundreds of Parkland’s Canadian employees, including many senior managers,” The Tyee said. (You can read the full story here: https://thetyee.ca/News/2026/10/01/BC-Ferries-US-Owned-Fuel-Supplier/)
(Warren is the billionaire Executive Chairman of Energy Transfer: he reportedly donated $10 million to the Trump-supporting America First Action Super PAC in 2020, $5 million to MAGA Inc. in 2024 and an estimated $25 million in 2025.)
How does that fit in with Eby’s commitment? Have BC Ferries really changed its rules, direction ?
There are several fuel suppliers in the market, Canadian owned, whose corporate profits stay in Canada … and not a penny goes to support/encourage Donald Trump.
Buying Canadian should mean Buying TRULY Canadian for the Premier and BC Ferries … for fuel as well as eggs.
Harv Oberfeld
🇨🇦🇨🇦Check those labels! BUY CANADIAN!🇨🇦🇨🇦
(Follow @harveyoberfeld.ca on “X” for FREE First Alerts to new postings on the blog.)
I think they now change fuel filters more than once a day with bio diesel.?
(Response: Seems like a lot … regardless where they buy it. Ho)
This is typical of governments and thier hypocrisies, but Eby is the most despicable and shameful Premier for calling this election, hands down. Also, what he and Horgan have done by introducing DRIPA and turning reconciliation into a huge gravy train of billons funneled to the special interest by way of closed door deals behind the publics back with no transparency is so wrong that I would personally describe it as criminal. The other real lower than a snakes belly thing he did besides the election call and these outrages, was when he reneged on the 1000 dollar rebate cheques that were promised to British Coumbians if they elected him. He got elected and he thumbed his disrespectful nose at them. They all lie and make promises but that was bad. Unforgivable. Hopefully the tide will turn completely against these shameful lying bums because of the damage they have done and will continue to do if elected.
(Response: I can understand why affordability, healthcare, public safety, and education are the most important issues on most people’s minds during this election. However, the biggest danger facing British Columbia in the future is DRIPA! The very ownership of property… Private as well as public is at stake, even if the NDP deny it. Remember, they told us even public lands were safe, and that DRIPA was more philosophical, cultural and a part of reconciliation than any real danger to land ownership and development. All it took was ONE Court case to prove how false that was. And now, all it will take will be another court case involving private lands that will set BC’s private property rights on its head! I know the NDP will hope the entire election campaign passes without DRIPA being discussed, but I sure hope the Conservatives bring it up … more than just in passing! Ho)
I agree with your response. But right now we don’t know enough to make any kind of informed comment so I am not really sure of the purpose of the MacLeod/Tyee article.
But this got me thinking. (Why do I do this to myself?) Here we are talking about an American owned fuel company in Canada that uses Canadian products and employs Canadian workers. When I go in a grocery store I do make an effort – a pretty good effort – at picking out Canadian products. I will buy Canadian apples or carrots or Canadian made canned goods etc. But at no time (until now) did I consider the store ownership. For the most part, I use Safeway and Save-on but I have bought groceries from Walmart. And I know lots of people who buy exclusively from Walmart because they feel it is cheaper.
Walmart has Canadian made products that we can choose to buy over American. They employ many Canadian citizens. Should we be boycotting Walmart because profits flow south?
What about Costco? They sell Canadian products and employ Canadians. But profits from their stores flow south.
Macdonald’s uses Canadian food sources for pretty much all of its food except for things like coffee. But some of its profits flow south.
And for me the worst of all is Amazon. And I do use it for some items when I can get something at a big discount. I can choose a Canadian made product if available. The Amazon employee is Canadian. The delivery guy is Canadian. But I am helping Bezos be a multi billionaire.
There are many more examples but I quit because my head was ready to explode.
Should BC Ferries get us the best deal as long as the product is Canadian and the workers are Canadian but should they use a more expensive completely Canadian owned company making BC Ferries more costly to run so Canadian CEOs and shareholders get richer instead of their American counterparts.
I do not know the answer. But just the fact that I am thinking about it makes me even more upset that Eby called this election.
(Response: I agree that the real goal should be to buy Canadian products from companies that employ Canadian workers… Not so much where the corporate ownership headquarters are located. I think what made this exceptional was the CEO/Trump mega donor connection.
Meanwhile, I would be interested in what readers think of the campaign until now: seems to me Eby/NDP have announced new tax or spend promises … but nothing that will create jobs, bring investment to grow the economy, lower the deficit and the debt and stop thousands more young people from leaving the province. Ho)
Just a reminder that I am still upset at Eby for calling an early election and especially upset that he is using Trump as the excuse.
No matter what the circumstances, a government has to defend its record. If Eby thinks he has the plan to take on the consequences of Trump then he also has to prove he is capable of fulfilling that plan, thus the defense of his record. Just saying you have a plan and the one best to fulfill that plan is nothing more than an election promise and we know how much those are worth.
Having said that, there are lots of things people can criticize Eby about, but I don’t think this is the best one. I read the Tyee article which you summarized nicely but I also read some of the comments that followed.
This is what I understand and I will be happy to be corrected.
Parkland has been the supplier of fuel to BC Ferries for years. It was bought by a US company in 2025. Eby had no control over that sale although the federal government could have blocked the sale if it wanted to but Carney has been pushing for investment in Canada so here we are: an American owned company whose profits go south (not good) but still sells Canadian oil (good) and uses Canadian workers (also good).
Are there viable options. Don’t know. The most obvious alternative is to buy from companies in Washington State (definitely not good). If there is a viable alternative, then BC Ferries should go with it. But as you pointed out Eby’s promise begins with
” Whenever we get a chance”. If there is no chance, then what else can BC Ferries/Eby do?
(Response: There are apparently lots of other fuel companies … Petro Canada, Pembina, Husky, Domo, Cdn Natural Resources etc. Just who bid we don’t know, since BC Ferries won’t say. Should Parkland just get the contract if it’s cheapest? What does that say to the millions of Canadians who are paying a little more when we buy our groceries, clothing, furnishing, appliances, construction materials etc. etc …to support Canadian firms? If BC Ferries gets a pass to Buy American (bottom line parent corporate ownership), especially from a company headed by a HUGE MAGA/Trump supporter/donor, why shouldn’t Canadian consumers or firms just buy from the US or other countries if they’re cheaper too? BC Ferries should be setting the example, especially since Eby has made it an issue? Ho)
Wasn’t he wearing a non canada jacket during press conference.
Maybe not been born in BC not helping?
But hey we got that safe not safe drug supply fixed now after that leak?
BC ferries now becoming like quicksand also?
Maybe ebi should ask Jimmy for an opinion?
What’s another 10 billion dollars again over budget
We’re only at 5 debt downgrades so far.
(Response: I wonder what Jimmy would’ve done with an executive who took one of his companies from a $6 billion profit to repeated losses year after year, hitting $13 billion? And, I believe, six credit downgrades! Ho)
David Eby, the poster-boy for Vancouver’s West Side armchair socialist who enjoy fat government pensions.
BC Ferries have been so ill run of late, that they have become a joke, except for those waiting for a ferry that never comes.
The NDP are afraid of ferries in BC, because of the FastFerries and the later 2001 election fiasco.
Memo to David Eby: The FastFerries did not sink the NDP, rather it was the NDP’s refusal to admit that building them was a mistake they inherited from the Social Credit, which unfortunately continued past an artificial “sunk cost” red line.
You would have lost the next election, but you would have had 10 to 20 elected members in Parliament to face off with Gordon Campbell!
It was the failure to admit to mistakes that costs your 2001 drubbing, and it will be the same this election.
When you lose the upcoming election and you will loose, your will blame everyone but yourself. Look in the mirror sunshine, that’s the NDP’s big problem.
(Response: Winning or losing an election is never a sure thing… especially with weeks to go in the campaign. Although I must say, with the type of campaign Eby is running so far, I think he’s in trouble with the undecided!Ho)
AHAHAHAHAHA.
Bless the Tyee and you Harvey for reporting this.
( I’m actually shocked that the “pro NDP” Tyee would report this during the election. Kudos to them for taking the high road).
While the machinations and skullduggery of large corporations buying and selling each other is about as easy as following an alligator in a swamp in pitch dark…..
Egg on Eby’s face at this point in the election…..is golden yolk.
(Response: The Tyee and reporter Andrew MacLeod did the superb work: I just read the article and decided it would be a great topic for the blog. But I too, was surprised that this appeared in the Tyee, which I would certainly describe as a center left news site. Kudos to them: telling this story was clearly in the public interest. Ho)
I guess it’s okay to lie by omission.
What a great way to gain the trust of your electorate in your bid to maintain power.
It’s no wonder people don’t trust politicians.
I cringe every time I hear Eby speak.
(Response: It really is kind of funny when you think about BC Ferries spending more than $1 billion to build ships overseas and billions to buy fuel from a company owned by a US corporation whose founder /CEO is a big Trump financial supporter… that BC’s Premier tells delegates to the UBCM that BC ferries does buy its eggs and much of its other foods from BC. Ho)
Eby must support buying from a US company cause not a word on the gasoline purchase
He says he is up against Trump yet he buys from a company that supports Trump
I cannot vote soon enough. EBY has to go.
(Response: According to the Tyee story, the call for bids closed in April. BC Ferries should announce which company gets the new contract before Election Day. Ho)