Canada Recapitalizes
National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy will provide
28 new surface vessels for its Navy and Coast Guard
By DAVID PUGLIESE, Special Correspondent
A Boon for Industry
point as to how the funding will be
split, but the budget for the Navy’s
Joint Support Ship project is estimated to be around $2.9 billion.
The construction of 116 smaller
federal government and Navy vessels will be set aside for competitive procurement among Canadian
shipyards that were not selected
for the NSPS work. Those contracts are expected to be worth
around $2 billion.
Regular maintenance and repair
for the various fleets, valued at $500
million annually, will be open to all
shipyards through normal procurement processes.
Public Works Minister Rona Ambrose, whose federal department oversees NSPS, said the government’s
decision to concentrate the majority of vessel construction into two yards will bring predictability to
Canada’s procurement of ships and stability to the
naval construction industry.
“One of the important parts of the strategy is dealing with the boom-and-bust aspect of the shipbuilding
and marine industry,” she said.
Government representatives said the NSPS will promote a long-term continuous build of ships at a steady
rate to ensure the shipyards have a regular cash-flow and
retain a work force needed to handle future projects.
The two winning yards now will begin negotiations
with the government on each separate building project, but the first vessels expected to be constructed
under NSPS will be the RCN’s Arctic/Offshore Patrol
Ships, or A/OPS.
A/OPS project manger Cmdr. Dave Soule said he
expects to have a contract in place with Irving next
summer. Six to eight ships will be built, but the final
number will not be determined until negotiations are
completed, he said.
Canada’s National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy (NSPS) will
set the stage for the Royal Canadian Navy’s future maritime force.
; Irving Shipbuilding was selected to construct 21 combat vessels for the Navy.
; Vancouver Shipyards will build the noncombat vessel work
package of a total of seven vessels for the Navy and Canadian
Coast Guard.
; Construction of 116 smaller federal government and Navy
vessels will be set aside for competitive procurement among
Canadian shipyards that were not selected for NSPS work.
The Canadian government is set to launch the largest shipbuilding program the country has een since World War II, an undertaking that
will include the replacement of most of the Royal
Canadian Navy’s surface fleet over the next 20-plus years.
Irving Shipbuilding of Halifax, Nova Scotia, and
Vancouver Shipyards of Vancouver, British Columbia,
were selected Oct. 19 as the winners of the government’s National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy
(NSPS) to build 28 major vessels. The two yards will
see an estimated $33 billion worth of work directed
their way under the program.
Vice Adm. Paul Maddison, commander of the Royal
Canadian Navy (RCN), said the NSPS will set the stage for
the service’s future maritime force as it delivers everything
from new supply ships to replacement vessels for destroy-
ers and frigates. He has called the shipbuilding program an
“unprecedented peacetime recapitalization effort.”
Under the NSPS, Irving Shipbuilding was selected to
construct 21 combat vessels for the Navy, while
Vancouver Shipyards will build the noncombat vessel
work package of seven vessels in total for the RCN and
Canadian Coast Guard. There are no specifics at this
