Davie pleads with Ottawa for second supply ship

More than 1,300 jobs are at risk due to Ottawa’s refusal to give the Davie shipyard near Quebec City a contract for a second supply ship, a coalition trying to save the facility said Thursday.

Members of the group travelled to Montreal to try to pressure Quebec-based MPs to recognize the plight of the province’s shipyard workers.

Some 800 workers are expected to lose their jobs by the end of the year, while another 350 people who work at the shipyard’s suppliers in the Quebec City area are also believed to be at risk of being unemployed.

On Thursday, the coalition presented the findings of a survey it conducted among 205 of the 219 Montreal-area suppliers to the Davie shipyard.

More than half of them said the federal government’s decision would negatively affect their businesses and threaten 160 jobs.

Davie recently completed the Asterix, a former container ship converted into a supply ship.

The shipyard’s workers were expecting an order for a second ship but were told by the Canadian Forces it would not be needed. The president of a subsidiary of the Davie shipyard owner that acts as an intermediary for federal contracts said both the Senate and the House of Commons have recognized the urgency to equip the Navy with a ship similar to the one Davie recently completed.