Province remains vague on shipbuilding deal
The McNeil government isn’t sweating concerns that changes may be coming to the National Shipbuilding Strategy (NSS), or that those changes could move jobs and money from Nova Scotia to Quebec.
One explanation for the province’s languor is that it has Ottawa’s commitment that the contracts and jobs at the Halifax shipyard are safe. If that’s the case, it’s too bad Premier Stephen McNeil or Business Minister Geoff MacLellan won’t say so and put the matter to rest.
Irving’s Halifax shipyard was sufficiently worried by signals that changes may be coming to its hard-won NSS contracts – valued at $60 billion over 30 years – that it sought federal assurances that all is well earlier this week.
The other possible explanation for the province’s reserve on the matter is that there are changes coming and the provincial and federal Liberals are trying to get their ducks lined up to limit the political damage or maximize political advantage, if not a little of both.
Regardless of the reason, the best the province could muster when asked where the government’s head is on the simmering doubt was a meaningless string of words that neither comfort nor gird.
“The Government of NS supports the shipbuilding strategy and is proud of the work the Halifax shipyard is doing as a world class shipbuilder.”
That statement obviously tells us nothing, although, in fairness, it does answer the question about where the government’s head is, and when it’s up there we can’t expect to draw a whole pile of insight from it.
The word out of Ottawa is that the federal government responded to Irving’s concerns by confirming its support for the strategy, as well. So everybody supports the strategy, but no one’s rushing out with any nervecalming pledge to keep its contracts intact.
Speculation that Ottawa will “refresh” the NSS is getting some traction, especially in Quebec where the Davie yard feels left out and has designs on some of the work awarded to Irving in 2011.
Darrell Dexter’s NDP government spearheaded the campaign to help Irving win the mega-contract. Champaign corks popped on the waterfront that day in 2011, when the Halifax yard was named the prime contractor for the combat portion of the strategy, which meant six new patrol vessels and 15 warships would be built in Halifax. Jim Irving gave full credit to Dexter’s government for securing the contract.
Nova Scotia taxpayers kicked in loans of up to $300 million to help the yard gear up, and the company can earn forgiveness on some of those loans by hitting job creation targets.
The work is expected to create up to 4,000 direct jobs and an additional 7,000 indirect jobs when the yard is at peak production
Should the federal Liberal government tamper with the contracts Irving and Nova Scotia won fair and square, there are some Liberal MPs in Nova Scotia who’d better start polishing their resumes.
The same is true of provincial Liberals, and Stephen McNeil would use all of his considerable clout with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to ensure any changes inflict the least possible damage, on Nova Scotia and on Liberals.
The tripe the province is pushing out to respond to questions about the shipbuilding work this week looks suspiciously like a placeholder agreed upon by the federal and provincial Liberals until they can get some lipstick on a pig.
The province is going to need a better answer by early September, when the legislature begins a new session, or it will get pounded by the opposition until any change in the strategy looks bad for Nova Scotia.
It’s out of character for the McNeil government to bring the legislature together so early after Labour Day. Most of Its fall sessions have started late and finished fast. It’s possible this session is still designed to finish fast, before the federal government makes any announcements affecting the NSS.
When the shipbuilding contract landed in Halifax seven years ago, it was heralded as an economic game changer, at least for the metropolitan region. A change in the NSS now that appears to favour Quebec at Nova Scotia’s expense would be a political game changer in the province.