Port Weller dry docks back in the game
First, it got the Port Weller dry docks back on its feet.
Now Heddle Shipyards faces a bigger task — getting the historic St. Catharines yard back on the radar for officials in Ottawa who award ship repair contracts.
The federal government is nine years into its $35-billion, 30-year national shipbuilding strategy to renew Canada’s fleet of combat and non-combat ships and rebuild the shipping industry.
Heddle can compete financially when it bids on contracts. The key now is to convince the government it’s up to the task.
“It’s exciting times for us. I just want to make sure we don’t get forgotten about in Ontario,” said company president Shaun Padulo.
He has met with local politicians and said St. Catharines Mayor Walter Sendzik was “incredibly supportive.”
He’s planning meetings with top officials in several federal ministries.
And the Canadian Coast Guard — it operates well more than 100 vessels — is expected to visit the local shipyard for an inspection.
Padulo said he understands why Port Weller fell off the map — it was shut down for nearly two years before Heddle moved in and reopened it in 2017.
“Now it’s our responsibility to show people we are operating Port Weller and doing a good job there.”
Most of the big projects go to Canadian industry giants like Irving Shipbuilding on the East Coast, Seaspan Shipyards on the West Coast and Davie Shipbuilding in Quebec.
That works well for the government because it supports jobs in regions from one end of Canada to the other.
Heddle can’t compete with companies of that size, but there are smaller projects it wants to land.
And Niagara and Hamilton — where Heddle operates a shipyard with about 60 staff — are important to the Ontario economy, Padulo said.
“All the facilities I’ve mentioned, they received massive amounts of government support” over the years in the form of interest-free loans or direct grants, he said.
“I don’t think (founder Rick Heddle) has ever reached out and or received government support in any way, shape or form.”
A lobbying effort will, Padulo hopes, “create awareness in Ottawa and let them know we are ready to take on some of these larger projects that we know are going to help resuscitate and revitalize” both shipyards.
Chris Bittle, the Liberal MP for St. Catharines, said he is optimistic Heddle can do it.
“There’s a lot of shipbuilding to be done … there is a need, and they have the capacity,” he said.
“In St. Catharines we have a history of building ships that is older than the country, and to get that back would be important for the city.
“These are great-paying jobs, but it’s difficult to keep skilled labour if you can’t provide them with a contract 12 months of the year.”
Shippers like Algoma and Canadian Steamship Lines need a capable, reliable repair yard on the Great Lakes, he said.
But getting Port Weller back to that point took some effort.
The former operator auctioned off most of its equipment when it went out of business. And there were repairs on the property that couldn’t wait — pipes that burst over the winter, electrical upgrades.
“We were literally starting from scratch,” Padulo said.
The company, founded about 30 years ago, started with a goslow approach: “We made a conscious decision at Port Weller last winter to only take one ship on.
“That’s because right now, we are still in sort of the ‘look at these guys, they’ve taken over the facility, let’s see what they do’ stage.
“So we did not want to fail in any projects we had taken on.”
This coming winter, he said, “we are hoping to take on one larger drydocking project with steel work, and another drydocking with a new class of ship” which, being more modern, won’t require as much repair.
What the company wants is to be a viable, year-round operation that works within its means and isn’t vulnerable to a boom-andbust cycle of hirings and layoffs as contracts come and go.
Finding new qualified staff can be a challenge, Padulo said: “A lot of the people we’re looking for are very skilled trades.
“There are welders that are skilled, and then there are marine welders … new steel to old, it’s a very difficult process and requires many skills that guys learn over the years.”
Many of the welders who previously worked at Port Weller have retired or moved on.
The company recently hired a vice-president specifically to attract the next generation of skilled workers for Port Weller and Hamilton. She is discussing program ideas with Niagara and Mohawk colleges as a way to grow new talent.
In the meantime, Padulo said, “we’re bringing people in from Newfoundland to help out because we can’t find enough qualified people in Ontario.”
“We want Port Weller to become a centre of excellence for repair.”
Currently, the 98-metre Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker Pierre Radisson is at the dry docks for three months.
As well as making basic repairs, workers are installing a multi-beam sonar system that requires cutting a hole in one of the tanks at the front of the vessel.
Padulo is happy with Port Weller’s progress so far. About 50 staff work there now, plus subcontractors.
“Algoma Central Corp. has been a huge supporter, we’ve done three of their ships in the dry docks (in the past year),” he said. “Being a St. Catharines company, they’re basically down the street from us.
“I think if we do a good job it could be a good, synergistic relationship.”