The Ship Model Forum

Can Canada keep up with a global icebreaker boom?

Russia, China and the United States are racing to build big ships meant to slice through ice in an Arctic region rich in natural resources and new shipping lanes. Canada's backyard is at stake.

By Nick Taylor-Vaisey December 17, 2020

Joe Clark wasn�t the first Canadian politician to promise the world�s most powerful icebreaker, and he won�t be the last. Clark, as foreign minister in 1985, staked his expensive pledge to build a ship that could slice through ice as thick as 2.5 m on the premise that the federal government was �not about to conclude that Canada cannot afford the Arctic.� That ship never got built. Today, as the climate warms, foreign icebreakers are exploring the Arctic for natural resources and asserting themselves in a region Canadians have long claimed is Canada. Clark�s icebreaker was supposed to replace a 20-year-old workhorse. Thirty-five years later, the CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent is still in service�and the Coast Guard likely won�t replace the country�s lone heavy icebreaker for at least another decade.

Canada�s frustrating, unending quest to build a new heavy icebreaker that can patrol Arctic waters is a mess of budget cuts and delays that no government has cleaned up. In 2008, then-prime minister Stephen Harper promised another ship, the Diefenbaker, first slated to be seaworthy by 2017. But the shipyard that won the contract, Vancouver�s Seaspan, lost the work in 2019 after too many delays. Last February, the feds pegged the new delivery date to the end of 2029 but haven�t officially reopened the bidding process.

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Federal cabinet, provinces engage in tug-of-war over polar icebreaker contract
B.C.'s Seaspan is seen as the leading candidate � but Quebec wants the work for the Davie shipyard
Daniel Leblanc, Marc Godbout � CBC News � Posted: Dec 09, 2020 1:28 PM ET | Last Updated: December 9
A Seaspan Vancouver Shipyards worker walks past a barge under construction in North Vancouver, B.C., on Wednesday November 2, 2011. (Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press)

Ottawa's efforts to build a massive icebreaker have become the focus of a heated interprovincial political battle over a plan to send the work to a B.C.-based firm instead of a Quebec shipyard.

Federal and industry sources say the Vancouver-based Seaspan Shipyard is back in hunt for the contract, more than a year after the federal government rescinded the order for the vessel. Sources estimate that the contract, which had an estimated value of $1.3 billion in 2013, is now worth close to $2 billion.

The sources said a plan to award the contract to Seaspan was presented recently to the cabinet committee on the economy and the environment, strongly suggesting the company is now seen as the leading candidate for the job.

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Coast Guard icebreaker contract to be awarded to Quebec shipyard
Author of the article:
David Pugliese � Ottawa Citizen
Publishing date:
Oct 30, 2020 � Last Updated 3 days ago � 1 minute read

The federal government plans to award Chantier Davie of Quebec a contract to do a life extension on the Canadian Coast Guard�s largest icebreaker.
The government announced Friday its intention to enter into a contract with Davie for the work on the Canadian Coast Guard Ship Louis S. St-Laurent. The deal is being handled through the Advance Contract Award Notice process. That is essentially a sole source contract, although any other firms can challenge the deal but must do so within 15 days.
Ottawa COVID-19 Update: Ford wants plan for reopening from Stage 2 closures(...EDITED)

Vancouver shipyard renews fight to build coast guard's new polar icebreaker
Seaspan previously won contract for CCGS John G. Diefenbaker, but feds lifted it from company's order book
Lee Berthiaume � The Canadian Press � Posted: Sep 21, 2020 8:31 AM PT | Last Updated: September 21
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Government checks another box on the long, long road to building a Polar icebreaker
Analysis: Companies only have two weeks to respond to the request for information.
David Pugliese, Ottawa Citizen
Updated: February 28, 2020
The federal government is requesting information from industry on which shipyard has the capability to build the Canadian Coast Guard�s new Polar Class icebreaker.

It�s a strange request in some respects. Last year the Liberal government took away the Polar Class icebreaker project from Seaspan shipyards on the west coast and instead provided that company with a deal that will see it build 16 new Multi-Purpose Vessels for the Canadian Coast Guard.

Irving on the east coast is running at full speed handling the combat ship portions of the National Shipbuilding Strategy. It has already fallen behind on the delivery of the first of the Arctic and Offshore Patrol Ships and it still has much work to do on the Canadian Surface Combatant program.

It was expected that Davie, the largest shipyard in Canada, would receive the contract to build the Polar Class icebreaker. Yet the news release issued Friday from Public Services and Procurement Canada noted that, �the Government of Canada issued a Request for Information (RFI), open to all Canadian shipyards, seeking information on domestic shipyard capability and capacity to construct and deliver a Polar-class icebreaker. This follows standard procurement practices, and the information gathered will help the government determine how best to proceed so that the polar icebreaker is delivered in the most timely and efficient manner.�

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Liberals guarantee immediate icebreakers work for new entrant in federal shipbuilding program
Murray Brewster � CBC News � Posted: Aug 02, 2019 12:59 PM ET | Last Updated: 6 hours ago
CCGS Terry Fox breaks the ice ahead of CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent during a science mission charting Canada's Arctic continental shelf in 2015. The federal government announced Friday it was ordering the construction of six new icebreakers and the work would go to a yet-to-be-selected federally designated shipyard. (Gary Morgan/Submitted by Canadian Coast Guard)

The Liberal government formally launched the process to add a third shipyard to the National Shipbuilding Strategy on Friday and even guaranteed the winner immediate work with a plan to construct six new icebreakers for the coast guard.

Fisheries Minister Jonathan Wilkinson made the announcement in Iqaluit on the sidelines of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's northern tour.

It's something that could very well prove to be a boon for the Davie shipyard of Levis, Que., on the eve of this fall's federal election.

Trudeau announced last spring the federal government would add a third yard to the nearly decade-old strategy. Irving Shipbuilding of Halifax and Seaspan of Vancouver have been, until this point, the go-to construction yards for the federal government.

CBC News reported last summer the Liberal government intended to "refresh" the strategy, which has been beset with delays and rising cost estimates.
15 days to apply

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Ottawa �explores options� to build Canada�s polar icebreaker
By Levon Sevunts |
english@rcinet.ca
Monday, June 10, 2019 17:19
The federal government intends to turn to another Canadian shipyard for the construction of its long-awaited polar ice breaker, according to officials at the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, which oversees the Canadian Coast Guard.
Under Canada�s National Shipbuilding Strategy, Seaspan�s Vancouver Shipyards and Irving Shipbuilding of Halifax had received the lion�s share of shipbuilding contracts for the Canadian Coast Guard and the Royal Canadian Navy.
That included the construction at Seaspan�s Vancouver Shipyards of the future polar icebreaker CCGS John G. Diefenbaker, named after Canada�s 13th prime minister.
However, given the importance of icebreaking capacity for Canada, Ottawa �is exploring other options to ensure the polar icebreaker is built in the most efficient manner, but no decisions have been taken,� said in an email to Radio Canada International Jocelyn Lubczuk, the press secretary of Fisheries and Oceans Minister Jonathan Wilkinson.
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Trudeau government moves heavy-icebreaker job out of Vancouver
C
The federal government has decided to move construction of Canada's new heavy icebreaker out of Vancouver's Seaspan Shipyards, fuelling speculation construction of Canada's polar icebreaker will be moved to Quebec's Davie shipyard.
Public Services and Procurement Canada said construction of a "large, one-off polar icebreaker compounded" challenges at Seaspan, which is building non-combat vessels under the national shipbuilding strategy.
"Therefore, Canada made the decision to substitute the one polar icebreaker with a long run of 16 multipurpose vessels (MPVs)," spokesperson Marc-Andre Charbonneau said in an email to CBC News.
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