Premier Kathleen Wynne was grilled in Windsor on a controversial decision to award a $40-million contract to build a new Pelee Island ferry to a Chilean firm instead of a nearby shipyard.

The decision to overlook Hike Metal Products of Wheatley, Ont., which partnered with a Quebec firm, has fallen flat in an area wrestling with the highest unemployment in the country.

“I understand that people are frustrated about a contract that … a Canadian company didn’t win. I understand that,” said Wynne, who suggested to reporters the Canadian partnership was not up to the job.

“I have been on that water to Pelee Island and we have to have a ferry that is built to the highest standards,” said Wynne, who was in Windsor meeting with auto parts manufacturers.

The new ferry, which will carry up to 399 passengers and 34 cars, is to replace the much smaller 55-year-old MV Pelee Islander. The ferry operates out of Leamington, which is about 15 minutes from Wheatley.

ASENAV, a shipbuilding company located in Valdivia, Chile, was awarded the contract last week. Canada has a free-trade agreement with Chile.

Andy Stanton, of Hike Metal Products, said he and many others, including local and provincial politicians, are very upset about the deal literally going south and about his company’s second-class treatment.

“There has been a horrendously negative response to say the least,” said Stanton, the president and CEO. “This whole thing is absolutely a disaster, the way the provincial government has handled this thing.”

After not even making it past the preliminary round in the bidding process, 51-year-old Hike Metals partnered with the Quebec firm of Chantier-Davie. Stanton says their bid was within 5 per cent of that submitted by the Chilean company.

“They went right to the bottom line and decided this is who is going to get job, no social economic benefit or Canadian content or Ontario employment levels were considered,” said Stanton. He added if he had gotten the work his employment level would have swelled from a low of 25 to 75, not to mention the spinoff economic benefits.

Among other things, Hike Metals has built ferries, fire and police boats, coast guard vessels and a 45-metre ocean-going luxury yacht.

“This thing is just big floating boxcar. We have built vessels a lot more elaborate than this,” he said of the 63-metre new ferry.

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The Ontario Transportation Ministry has promised to explain to Stanton and others next Tuesday in London why the Ontario-Quebec partnership didn’t get the nod.

“I sincerely hope that Hike Metals can, through the briefing that is offered to all who participate in the bid process‎, better understand why they did not qualify in this instance, and that they will continue to work with the Ministry of Transportation on future opportunities,” Transportation Minister Steven Del Duca said in an email statement.

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