Initial construction to begin in June on new warships
Initial construction of the first of the new Canadian warships estimated to cost as much as $80 billion will begin in June even though an actual contract to build the vessels has yet to be signed.
National Defence’s procurement chief Troy Crosby recently told parliamentarians that low-rate production activities on the Canadian Surface Combatant will begin sometime next month. That will include building a small section of the first structure on the vessel at Irving Shipbuilding on the east coast.
That work is proceeding even though the Canadian government has yet to sign the actual construction contract to start building the 15 warships.
National Defence spokesman Kened Sadiku explained the contract to build the first ships — known as the implementation contract — won’t be awarded until later this year or early 2025.
But under the current existing deal, low-rate production activities on the ships are covered and building a small section allows for construction techniques to be further refined. “Full-rate production is expected to begin under an implementation contract in 2025,” Sadiku noted.
The first completed CSC was originally to be delivered in the early 2020s. But in February 2021, National Defence admitted the delivery of the first vessel wouldn’t take place until 2030 or 2031.
The project has already faced significant increases in cost from the original estimated price tag of $26 billion. Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux now estimates the cost of the ships to be around $84 billion.
National Defence maintains the cost will be between $56 billion and $60 billion, and its officials have insisted that figure will not go up.
Critics have labelled the CSC project, the largest single purchase in Canadian history, as a bottomless money pit with little accountability or oversight. Since the construction contract has yet to be signed, they have called for the project to be halted or at least reviewed.
National Defence remains steadfast it will not alter course and that the project, which will acquire ships to replace the current Halifax-class frigates, is a success so far.
Conservative MP Kelly Mccauley said he and other MPS believed the construction of the CSC alone would eventually cost more than $100 billion.
Postmedia News reported Jan. 24 that National Defence has brought in a new and unprecedented shroud of secrecy around the CSC costs.
After withholding documents for almost three years, the department released nearly 1,700 pages of records that were supposed to outline specific costs and work done so far on the CSC program.
But all the details of what taxpayers have so far spent and what type of work has been done by Irving Shipbuilding for that money were censored from the records.