Federal government awards two contracts for multi-purpose vessels
by CM Staff
These contracts will allow VSY to undertake vital pre-construction work, such as selecting specific pieces of equipment, refining the design, ensuring all necessary information and plans are in place, and procuring essential material items needed to begin construction.
GATINEAU — Through the National Shipbuilding Strategy (NSS), the Government of Canada is renewing the Canadian Coast Guard fleet, while generating economic opportunities for the Canadian marine sector.
Jonathan Wilkinson, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, and Mike Kelloway, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard, announced that 2 contracts have been awarded to Seaspan’s Vancouver Shipyards Co. Ltd. (VSY), with a combined value of $490.6 million (taxes included), to initiate the next stages of procuring the first flight of Multi-Purpose Vessels (MPVs) for the CCG. These contracts will allow VSY to undertake vital pre-construction work, such as selecting specific pieces of equipment, refining the design, ensuring all necessary information and plans are in place, and procuring essential material items needed to begin construction.
The Multi-Purpose Vessel (MPV) project will result in icebreaking ships designed with multi-mission capabilities. These new vessels will try to support a wide variety of critical services, such as icebreaking, maritime search and rescue, scientific research, environmental response, emergency towing, maintenance and deployment of buoys, as well as support for offshore fisheries patrols.
A $310.2-million construction engineering services contract has been awarded for work to complete the design of the first flight of 6 MPVs and ensure that the technical requirements provided by the CCG are met. A second $180.4-million goods contract has been awarded for work to procure materials with long-lead manufacturing time and other items that will be required in advance of construction of the first 6 MPVs.
The MPV project is a multi-stage procurement with distinct contracts to design and subsequently construct the MPVs. The first contract was awarded to VSY in August 2020 for the development of the MPV concept design. The contracts announced today will build upon the work completed under the first contract.
The NSS is creating jobs in Canada’s shipbuilding industry and marine sector, and providing members of the CCG with the equipment they need to ensure safe and accessible waterways for Canadians. Contracts under the NSS are estimated to have contributed close to $25 billion ($2.1 billion annually) to Canada’s gross domestic product between 2012 and 2022, and created or maintained over 18,800 jobs annually between 2012 and 2023.
“The Multi-Purpose Vessel project will help ensure that members of the Canadian Coast Guard have versatile vessels to complete essential missions in Canada’s oceans and waterways. By awarding the construction engineering services and goods contracts, we are making significant progress toward completing the design and preparing for construction,” said Jean-Yves Duclos, Minister of Public Services and Procurement.
