Davie confident of getting two ferry contracts
OTTAWA — The president of Davie Shipbuilding says he is confident the Quebec-based shipyard will be tapped to build two new ferries included in this week’s federal budget.
But James Davies said it is time the federal government stop rewarding other shipyards for failing to deliver new vessels to the navy and coast guard, and officially admit his company into the multibillion-dollar national shipbuilding plan.
The comment came late Wednesday as top officials from Davie and its two bitter rivals, Vancouver and Victoria-based Seaspan Shipyards and Halifaxbased Irving Shipbuilding, appeared one after the other before the Senate finance committee.
Seaspan and Irving were selected through the shipbuilding strategy in 2011 as the two shipyards responsible for building what at the time was estimated to be $35 billion worth of new vessels for the navy and coast guard.
Davie also competed but was passed over and has since been forced to fight for scraps outside the plan.
That includes the provision of an interim resupply vessel for the navy and three second-hand icebreakers for the coast guard.
Davies also told the committee he did not think any other shipyard could provide the two new ferries included in the budget.
They will replace two existing ferries, one of which operates between Quebec and Prince Edward Island and the other between Nova Scotia and P.E.I. The budget does not provide any further details, including cost or when they will be built.
Seaspan chief executive officer Mark Lamarre said work is advancing on the West Coast as three fisheries science vessels for the coast guard are near completion after several delays, some of which were caused by faulty welding.
Steel has also started to be cut on the first of two long-overdue resupply vessels for the navy, he said.
Lamarre admitted Seaspan has faced challenges, but he said difficulties were inevitable given that it had been a generation since the government and shipbuilding industry launched such a massive project.