Bureaucrats balked at optics of ship deal

Defence department bureaucrats fought against a plan to purchase outright the commercial vessel now being converted as a naval supply ship because they worried it would make the government’s shipbuilding program look bad.

While bureaucrats acknowledged buying the ship after a five-year lease would help the navy, they worried that would create a perception that there were problems with the federal shipbuilding strategy, according to documents obtained by the Ottawa Citizen.

The interim supply ship, which the Liberal government tried to derail in the fall of 2015, is at the heart of the case of Vice- Admiral Mark Norman. Norman, a respected officer, was suspended from his job as vice- chief of staff earlier this year after the RCMP alleged he leaked information about Liberal plans to scuttle the $700-million ship deal.

Davie shipyards in Quebec is converting the commercial vessel. It will then lease the vessel to the government to refuel and supply warships at sea.

Canada has been without such a capability since 2015 after it removed from service its two aging resupply vessels.

Officials at Public Works, since renamed Public Servi c es and Procurement Canada, asked the Defence department to consider inserting an option to allow for the purchase of the Project Resolve ship after the lease period was up.

Defence bureaucrats acknowledged t hat option had advantages since it addressed the navy’s long-term needs and provided the department with the flexibility to buy the vessel at a pre-determined cost.

But they rejected the idea, warning such a move could call into question the government’s shipbuilding plan.

Under that plan, the navy will eventually receive two Joint Support Ships, known as JSS. Those will be built on the West Coast but the program has faced delays. Construction has yet to start but the government hopes those two vessels will be delivered in 2021-2022.

Buying the Project Resolve ship, “could create a perception that there are JSS delivery issues,” the bureaucrats warned in a September, 2015, briefing note obtained under the Access to Information law.

“It would draw much needed resources away from projects under the National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy,” the officials added.

The Conservative government ultimately overruled the bureaucrats and an option to purchase the supply ship after the lease was inserted into the contract.

It is not yet known whether the government will exercise that option.