CFB GAGETOWN – A major federal funding announcement at CFB Gagetown late Friday, but it won’t have the kind of implications the Maritimes had hoped for.
Ottawa awarded a contract worth $708 million to Ottawa-based Textron Systems Canada Inc.
The deal will see Textron build 500 tactical armoured patrol vehicles for the Canadian Army.
They’re just one component of $5 billion in upgrades to the Army’s combat vehicle fleet, a commitment made in 2009.
Textron has named companies in Ontario and Quebec that will work alongside it in creating the vehicles and lists Michelin Tire’s Waterville plant in Nova Scotia as one of its suppliers.
Get daily National news
But the announcement from Associate Minister of National Defence Julian Fantino was bad news for a for a Dieppe, N.B. manufacturer that hoped to make the vehicles for the military.
Malley Industries had bid on the lucrative contract to build the vehicles which would have created 120 jobs for the company and hundreds of spin-off jobs in the region.
Fantino wouldn’t comment on why Textron was the successful bidder and Fredericton MP Keith Ashfield says he had no knowledge of the “particulars of the procurement process.”
“I do know it was transparent and open process and the best company won,” Ashfield says.
Ashfield also says he was not in the aware of who was in fact bidding on the contract.
“I think what we have to focus on here is the fact that it’s a huge investment in our Canadian military,” he says.
Despite the fact the announcement was made at CFB Gagetown, there’s no word if the company will draw on any resources in N.B.
Textron should start delivering on the vehicles in 2014.
Comments
Want to discuss? Please read our Commenting Policy first.