Seventeen Canadian unions, including those representing the maritime transport, shipyards and ports sectors, launched the "Build Them Here" initiative with the to induce the shipping company BC Ferries, which is controlled by the government of the province of British Columbia, for example assign the construction of its future ferries to shipyards naval of British Columbia. The last order relating to the new ship construction issued by the shipping company is against China's China Merchants Industry Weihai Shipyards (CMI Weihai), which in June 2025 were ordered four ferries to be delivered between 2029 and 2031 as part of a program that provides for the acquisition of 18 new ships over the of 15 years.

Referring to the order at CMI Weihai, the director of the United Steelworkers District 3, Scott Lunny, highlighted that those "four new ferries should have mean years of good jobs and activities in British Columbia. On the other hand, BC Ferries has relocated that work to China. Public funds should support British Columbia workers and build A stronger economy here at home."

"When our ferries are built abroad - added Eric McNeely, president of BC Ferry & Marine Workers Union - British Columbia is at the mercy of the global supply chains for spare parts and repairs. This results in higher costs and delays for communities that depend on ferry service. I our members have seen repairs postponed longer and several times, waiting for international teams to come sent on site to remedy problems that a supplier local could have solved at home if we had used locally produced spare parts".

Referring to the recent serious deterioration in relations trade union between the US and Canada, the executive director of the union BC Building Trades, Brynn Bourke, explained that the initiative "Build Them Here" was launched "because We are at a turning point. The need to buy and building in Canada - he specified - has become even more in the last ten days. Right now We can choose whether to focus on our long and glorious history shipbuilding in British Columbia and rebuild a a sector that has supported thousands of British Columbianese and their families for decades, or let this unique opportunity to bring back the construction of the ferries at home and continue to build them in China. The shipyards naval forces of British Columbia - Bourke underlined - are of world-class ferry line. The next set of ferries should be built here and now."

To support their theses, the unions referred to also to a survey conducted last November by Leger according to where 84% of British Columbia's residents support a plan to maintain jobs in the shipbuilding sector in British Columbia and 61% say the new ferries they should be built in British Columbia.