Kanada — Government of Canada announces National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy

OTTAWA, Ontario – The Gov­ern­ment of Cana­da today announced the Nation­al Ship­build­ing Pro­cure­ment Strat­e­gy, a long-term plan that will cre­ate good jobs in high-tech indus­tries across Cana­da and pro­vide much need­ed ships for the Cana­di­an Navy and the Cana­di­an Coast Guard. The Hon­ourable Rona Ambrose, Min­is­ter of Pub­lic Works and Gov­ern­ment Ser­vices and Min­is­ter for Sta­tus of Women, made the announce­ment togeth­er with the Hon­ourable Peter MacK­ay, Min­is­ter of Nation­al Defence, the Hon­ourable Gail Shea, Min­is­ter of Fish­eries and Oceans, and the Hon­ourable Denis Lebel, Min­is­ter of State (Eco­nom­ic Devel­op­ment Agency of Cana­da for the Regions of Quebec). 

“Our Gov­ern­ment made the deci­sion to sup­port the Cana­di­an marine indus­try, to revi­tal­ize Cana­di­an ship­yards and to build ships for the Navy and Coast Guard here in Cana­da,” said Min­is­ter Ambrose. “The Strat­e­gy will bring pre­dictabil­i­ty to fed­er­al ship pro­cure­ment and elim­i­nate cycles of boom and bust, pro­vid­ing ben­e­fits to the entire marine industry.” 

The Strat­e­gy, which was devel­oped after con­sul­ta­tions with indus­try stake­hold­ers, encom­pass­es three streams – large ship con­struc­tion, small ship con­struc­tion, and repair, refit and main­te­nance projects. The gov­ern­ment will estab­lish a long-term strate­gic rela­tion­ship with two Cana­di­an ship­yards for the pro­cure­ment of the large ships – one to build com­bat ves­sels, the oth­er to build non-com­bat ves­sels. The selec­tion of the two ship­yards will be done in a com­pet­i­tive, fair, open and trans­par­ent man­ner. A fair­ness mon­i­tor and inde­pen­dent third par­ty experts will par­tic­i­pate in the process. 

The con­struc­tion of small­er ships will be set aside for com­pet­i­tive pro­cure­ment among oth­er Cana­di­an ship­yards. The repair, refit and main­te­nance of ships in the Gov­ern­ment fleet will con­tin­ue to be sourced through com­pet­i­tive tendering. 

The Strat­e­gy pro­motes the region­al dis­tri­b­u­tion of work and oppor­tu­ni­ties to ship­yards across the coun­try. Ship­yards that are select­ed to build the com­bat and non-com­bat pack­ages will have to sub­con­tract vast amounts of work to the broad­er marine indus­try and sup­pli­ers of this indus­try. Sub­con­tract­ing in any of the three streams encom­passed by the Strat­e­gy will be of notable ben­e­fit small and medi­um enterprises. 

“This strate­gic rela­tion­ship with Cana­di­an ship­yards will help us deliv­er on our com­mit­ment to the Cana­da First Defence Strat­e­gy, and enable us to pro­vide our Navy with the mod­ern ships they need to defend Canada’s inter­ests at home and abroad,” said Min­is­ter MacKay. 

“We are proud to sup­port Canada’s new ship­build­ing strat­e­gy because it will cre­ate jobs and help stim­u­late our country’s econ­o­my” said Min­is­ter Shea. “It will also give Canada’s Coast Guard the tools it needs to do its job.” 

“The Strat­e­gy is about under­tak­ing major ship pro­cure­ments in a smarter, more effec­tive way – a way that sus­tains Cana­di­an jobs, strength­ens the marine sec­tor, and pro­vides best val­ue for Cana­di­an tax­pay­ers,” said Min­is­ter Lebel. 

The Gov­ern­ment of Cana­da is com­mit­ted to get­ting the best val­ue for Cana­di­an tax­pay­ers. Under the Strat­e­gy, ship­build­ing projects that are sim­i­lar in nature will be grouped togeth­er to reduce pro­duc­tion costs. This type of strate­gic sourc­ing will cre­ate the con­di­tions for the effec­tive and effi­cient deliv­ery and sup­port of the fed­er­al fleet over the long term. 

Source:
Depart­ment of Nation­al Defence, Kanada