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  August 5, 2020 | Local, Naval

  Arctic military port first promised in 2007 sees new delay

  August 4, 2020 By Lee Berthiaume, The Canadian Press OTTAWA—The construction of a new military refuelling station in the Arctic is facing another delay more than 13 years after it was first promised by the federal government, with one analyst raising concerns about other pressing military needs in the region. Former prime minister Stephen Harper announced plans to build the Nanisivik deep-water port in Nunavut, along with up to eight armed Arctic patrol vessels, during a trip to the Far North in 2007. The port, considered one of the crown jewels of the Conservative government's Arctic strategy, was intended to provide fuel to the patrol ships and other federal vessels while expanding the military's permanent footprint in the North. The long-standing expectation was that the port located at the site of an old mining jetty on Baffin Island, about 20 kilometres from the community of Arctic Bay, would be ready by the time the first of those ships was delivered to the Royal Canadian Navy. Yet while the first Arctic patrol vessel was handed over to the navy on Friday after numerous delays and cost overruns, the Department of National Defence confirmed the Nanisivik facility won't be operational until at least 2022. Defence Department spokeswoman Jessica Lamirande said COVID-19 scuttled this year's construction season, which can only occur between June and September because of weather in the North. “Due to COVID-19 delays, a small number of contractors are expected to return to the site in August to start the 2020 work season,” Lamirande said in an email. “This means the season will be much shorter than planned and will only allow for a limited amount of work to be completed.” COVID-19 is only the most recent challenge to plague construction of the Nanisivik facility, which was originally supposed to be up and running in 2013 and include an airstrip and be manned throughout the year. The airstrip and year-round service were cut from the plans after the project's original $100-million budget was found to have more than doubled to $258 million in 2013. The current price tag is estimated at $146 million, according to Lamirande. The federal government has also faced environmental hurdles due to the need to clean up the old fuel-tank farm located on the site, which was home to a port used to ship ore from an old zinc mine. There were also structural issues with the existing jetty. Lamirande said significant progress has been made on the facility since the first full construction season in 2015, with nearly all fuelling infrastructure in place. But the fact the port still hasn't been finished, despite the scope of the project having been dramatically scaled back, is both disheartening and troubling, said defence analyst David Perry of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute. Canada's relative difficulty building a single port with limited facilities in the North contrasts sharply with Russia's massive Arctic expansion in recent years, Perry said, and bodes poorly for needed Canadian military investments in the region. Those include upgrading the string of increasingly obsolete radars that forms the backbone of North America's system for incoming missiles and air- and water-based threats, as well as several airstrips in the area that will be used by Canada's new fighter jets. Those projects are expected to start in the coming years. “It's kind of dispiriting how long it has taken us to develop relatively simple infrastructure at one of the most accessible parts of our Arctic,” Perry said of Nanisivik. “The length of time it has taken us to build doesn't leave a lot of confidence that the other projects are going to move in a relatively quick timeframe.” https://www.on-sitemag.com/construction/arctic-military-port-first-promised-in-2007-sees-new-delay/1003969425/

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  October 5, 2021 | Local, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security

  Contracts for October 1, 2021

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  October 25, 2018 | Local, Naval, Security

  'Interim' icebreakers to be used for decades

  OTTAWA — The Canadian Coast Guard says three "interim" icebreakers that were recently purchased without a competition will be used for the next 15 to 20 years. Coast guard officials revealed the timeframe in interviews with The Canadian Press while playing down concerns about the state of their aging fleet — and the challenges in building replacements. The government in August agreed to sole-sourcing the purchase of three used icebreakers from Davie Shipbuilding for $610 million, saying a stop-gap was needed until replacements could be built. The deal represented a win for the Quebec-based shipyard, which had been lobbying hard for additional federal work, and should ease pressure on the coast guard's icebreaking fleet. The coast guard's existing vessels are on average more than 35 years old and have lost hundreds of operational days over the past few years due to mechanical breakdowns. Yet there are no immediate plans to replace them; the government's multibillion-dollar shipbuilding plan includes only one new heavy icebreaker, which won't be ready until the next decade. Deputy Commissioner Andy Smith, who is overseeing the shipbuilding plan for the coast guard, said the service is instead in the midst of extending the life of its current fleet another 20 years — during which it will rely on the Davie ships to fill any gaps. "The icebreakers that we recently purchased were envisioned to backfill behind those various ships as we put them into a refit or an extended maintenance period," Smith said in an interview. "And we have mapped that out over 20 years." Deputy Commissioner Mario Pelletier, who is responsible for coast guard operations, confirmed that time period in a separate interview, saying: "I would expect that we're going to have them for 15, 20 years. "The urgent need is just to make sure we do have a surge capacity to backfill when those ships come out of service," he added. While few would argue the need for additional icebreakers, the timeline has nevertheless resulted in fresh criticism of the country's procurement system — and questions about the shipbuilding plan. The federal government previously purchased "interim" icebreakers in the 1980s and those vessels are still in use, said Rob Huebert, an expert on the Arctic at the University of Calgary. That, plus the absence of any real plan to replace the majority of the coast guard's icebreakers, leads Huebert to believe the three Davie ships will eventually become part of the permanent fleet. "What's going to happen is we have been overworking our three medium icebreakers and those three (Davie ships) will replace them even though no one is saying they're replacing them," he said. The two Canadian Coast Guard officials both insisted that the Davie deal would not undercut the shipbuilding plan, through which Vancouver Shipyards is building several coast guard ships. Those include three fisheries-science ships, an ocean-science vessel and a heavy icebreaker, in that order. Two naval support ships will be built between the ocean-science vessel and the icebreaker. But defence analyst David Perry of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute wondered whether calling the Davie deal an "interim" measure was intended to sidestep the plan — and any legal trouble. Either way, he said, the arrangement only underscores many of the enduring issues facing Canada's troubled procurement system and the long amount of time it takes to buy new equipment. "If they're defining an interim period being up to 20 years, only in Canada is that considered an interim basis," he said, noting that the shipbuilding plan is already years behind schedule. "Only in a country where you run things for 40-plus years is two decades a temporary solution." Smith and Pelletier said the current coast guard fleet is nonetheless in good shape and that there are positive signs of progress at Vancouver Shipbuilding, despite some hiccups. Those included a welding problem discovered on the three fisheries-science ships that has pushed back delivery of the first of those vessels until next year. The design and budget for the ocean-science ship also remains up in the air, while the construction schedule for the navy support ships and heavy icebreaker remain in limbo. "It's really a dynamic time as we look to regrow the whole ecosystem of shipbuilding in this country, and they are in various stages of design and construction," Smith said of the challenges. "So that whole ecosystem is being rebuilt." — Follow @leeberthiaume on Twitter. Note to readers: This is a corrected story. It corrects Mario Pelletier's title. By Lee Berthiaume, The Canadian Press https://www.niagarafallsreview.ca/news-story/8982113--interim-icebreakers-to-be-used-for-decades/