Canada’s shipyards will be “humming like they haven’t hummed since the Second World War” under a $35-billion, 30-year federal shipbuilding strategy announced yesterday, says Defence Minister Peter MacKay.
The strategy means work for West Coast shipyards and their employees, federal officials said. Shipbuilding companies and unions hope the announcement will bring stability to the uncertain industry and help it to attract and train younger workers.
“There’s going to be enough work for all the shipyards,” MacKay said, enumerating a need to replace combat vessels, supply ships, icebreakers, coast guard vessels and Arctic operations vessels.
“This strategy will be the framework through which the government invests $35 billion over the next 30 years to acquire 28 large vessels for the Canadian Coast Guard and the Canadian navy, as well as more than a hundred smaller ships,” MacKay said.
Two Canadian shipyards will be chosen — one to construct large combat vessels, the other for non-combat ships.
Those yards will have to subcontract “vast” amounts of work and that subcontracting will have to show a regional balance, the government said.
Get breaking National news
Treasury Board chairman Stockwell Day confirmed that the federal government is committed to equitable distribution of shipbuilding on both coasts. “As a representative from Western Canada, that was firmly my position that anything less than that would be untenable, and we have gained that commitment.
“Work itself will be distributed right across the country,” Day said. “It’s huge and it is significant.”
Contracts for smaller ships would be open to bids by other Canadian shipyards, and refit, repair and maintenance work will also be up for competition. A national “fairness monitor” will oversee the process.
Shipyards would be expected to invest in training to prepare their workforce, the announcement said.
The priority is construction of joint supply ships for the Canadian navy, he said. That project has been delayed for two years since the government halted the procurement process due to bidders’ non-compliance with requirements and costs.
Major competitors to the West Coast yards are expected to be Davie Yards Inc. in Quebec, and Irving Shipbuilding in Nova Scotia. Washington Marine Group, which owns Victoria and Vancouver Shipyards, is a major player in B.C.
George MacPherson, president of the Shipyard General Workers’ Federation, said the announcement is good news for the industry but warned competition will be fierce for the two major building categories. He figures that the job of building the larger joint supply ship vessels will likely go to Quebec because of its existing facilities, leaving the East and West Coasts to battle it out for the non-combat vessels.
“Without this, I think we are in big trouble,” MacPherson. “I think that’s the future of the shipbuilding industry on the West Coast.”
The Pacific Coast Shipbuilders Association, made up of the shipbuilding industry and unions, was formed last year to convince Ottawa that the West Coast deserves to be seen as a centre of excellence for shipbuilding. “It obviously gives us a chance on the West Coast at the work which was basically what we were after — a fair process,” said Mark Curtis, an association director who represents unionized sheet metal workers in Victoria.
B.C. shipyards have about 1,000 workers on the job. Contracts from the strategy could increase that to 2,500, Curtis said.
cjwilson@tc.canwest.com
Comments
Want to discuss? Please read our Commenting Policy first.