Transport Canada looking at used German drone to patrol Arctic

On the same subject

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  May 23, 2019 | Local, Naval

  Renewing Canadian Coast Guard fleet and delivering important services for Canadians

  QUÉBEC, May 22, 2019 /CNW/ - Canadians across the country rely on the Canadian Coast Guard to protect mariners and our environment, and to ensure the safe and efficient movement of ships that are key to our vibrant economy. Following an announcement by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau earlier today, the Honourable Jean-Yves Duclos, Minister of Families, Children and Social Development and Member of Parliament for Québec, visited Quai de la Reine in Québec to highlight the Government of Canada's new investments to renew the Canadian Coast Guard fleet and to provide up to 18 new large ships to be built in Canadian shipyards. These new vessels will help the Coast Guard continue to deliver its important services for Canadians. Canada's partners for large ship construction under the National Shipbuilding Strategy (NSS), Irving Shipbuilding of Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Seaspan's Vancouver Shipyards in British Columbia, will build the new ships. Irving Shipbuilding will build two new Arctic and Offshore Patrol Ships, which will be adapted for the Coast Guard to perform a range of critical missions, including Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization patrols. Seaspan's Vancouver Shipyards will build up to 16 Multi-Purpose Vessels to support a variety of missions, including light icebreaking, environmental response, and offshore search and rescue. In addition, the Government of Canada is investing in vessel life extensions, refits and maintenance work at shipyards throughout Canada, including in Quebec, so the current Coast Guard fleet can continue delivering critical search and rescue and environmental response services while the new ships are being built. Even with investments in maintenance, Coast Guard ships will eventually reach the end of their service lives, and more ships will be needed to fully renew the Coast Guard fleet. To support future shipbuilding requirements, and attract more talent and good jobs to our communities, the Government of Canada intends to add a third Canadian shipyard as a partner under the NSS. The Government of Canada will move forward with a competitive process to select the third shipyard in the coming months. Quotes "The Canadian Coast Guard saves lives at sea, maintains safe shipping, enables an otherwise ice-choked economy, protects the marine environment and supports Canadian sovereignty and security. With increasing shipping trade and the impacts of climate change already upon us, demands on Canada's Coast Guard will continue to grow. A renewed Coast Guard fleet ensures the confidence of Canadians and the confidence of industries that rely on Coast Guard services to remain competitive." The Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard "The National Shipbuilding Strategy is the right approach to ensure our Coast Guard, Navy and marine activities are supported by modern vessels. In addition to adapting to meet evolving federal shipbuilding requirements, the Strategy is creating jobs, generating benefits and prosperity in communities across Canada, and supporting a sustainable marine sector. We remain firmly committed to the National Shipbuilding Strategy, and will continue to work closely with our shipbuilding partners to continue its success into the future." The Honourable Carla Qualtrough Minister of Public Services and Procurement and Accessibility "The Canadian Coast Guard offers vital services while ensuring safety in the navigation of our waterways, particularly the St. Lawrence River and the Saguenay Fjord. Today's announcement is especially important since the government recognizes that we must add a third shipyard to the National Shipbuilding Strategy. This is a major change that will allow Chantier Davie to participate in the process of selecting a third shipyard in the coming months. Also, the announcement of $2 billion to prolong the life, refit and maintenance of ships is excellent news for shipyards in Quebec, allowing them to obtain numerous contracts." The Honourable Jean-Yves Duclos Minister of Families, Children and Social Development Quick facts The Canadian Coast Guard provides critical search and rescue, environmental response, and icebreaking services in the Central and Arctic region, with more than 1,400 employees, a fleet of 18 ships, as well as 6 helicopters. Search and rescue command centres in the Central and Arctic region (St. Lawrence and Great Lakes sectors) receive more than 5,600 calls annually. In 2018, the Coast Guard's Central and Arctic Environmental Response Program received 1,370 pollution reports, mainly cases of pollution from a vessel. The Canadian Coast Guard also oversees icebreaking operations in the winter along the St. Lawrence River and in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. In the spring, the Coast Guard helps to clear ice on the seaway between Montréal and the Great Lakes, an operation that allows commercial vessels to enter and exit ports in a safe and efficient manner. Its hovercraft help with spring icebreaking on about 15 rivers, mainly in Quebec. Total funding for the 18 new large ships is $15.7 billion, which represents early estimates of project budgets, including construction, logistics and support, contingency, project management and infrastructure costs. The costs of each ship will be announced following contract negotiations. The government will also proceed through a competitive process with the design of a new class of smaller ships, the Mid-Shore Multi-Mission Ship, which will complement the work of the large fleet in shallow areas and deliver mid-shore science activities. Repairs, refits and vessel life extension work will be carried out on the existing fleet until the new ships are delivered, with more than $2 billion to be invested on a competitive basis for this purpose. In addition to funding for shipbuilding, the Government of Canada is also providing $351.3 million to support ongoing Canadian Coast Guard capacity enhancements, such as strengthening management oversight and promoting green innovation. To date, the Government of Canada has awarded more than $11 billion in NSS-related contracts across the country. Of this value, approximately $1.6 billion, or 16%, has been awarded to companies in Quebec. https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/renewing-canadian-coast-guard-fleet-and-delivering-important-services-for-canadians-862623694.html

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  December 1, 2017 | Local, Naval

  Chantier Davie won’t take ‘no’ for an answer

  By Kevin Dougherty. Published on Dec 1, 2017 10:46am QUEBEC – Chantier Davie in Lévis, across the St. Lawrence from Quebec City, will be forced to lay off 800 shipyard workers before Christmas without a new contract to build a second supply vessel for the Canadian navy. “We're not taking no for an answer on that,” Davie CEO Alex Vicefield said in a telephone interview on Thursday, after Defence Minister Harjit Singh Sajjan told Le Journal de Québec last week through his press attaché that the government does not plan to buy a second supply ship. In an email response Thursday, Sajjan's press attaché Bryne Furlong reiterated that, “Navy and Coast Guard supply requirements have been extensively studied and are subject to long-term planning, which does not include a second supply vessel‎.” The layoffs have begun, now that the Davie workforce has completed — on time and on budget — conversion of the German-built container ship Asterix into a supply ship to deliver fuel, water, food and supplies to the ships of the Royal Canadian Navy. Davie's plan now is the $600 million conversion of the Obelix, a sister ship to the Asterix, into the navy's second supply ship. Vicefield said Ottawa's plan calls for paying $2 billion each for two new supply vessels, the first of which will only be available 10 years from now. “Why do we need to build these ships for $2 billion each?” Vicefield asked, noting the Asterix and Obelix cost $600 million each and are superior vessels. “I'm not a political activist but we believe in the project and we delivered,” Vicefield said. In 2011, the Harper government unveiled its National Shipbuilding Procurement Program, awarding $38-billion in contracts to build ships for the Navy and Coast Guard to Irving Shipbuilding Inc. of Halifax and Seaspan Shipbuilding of Vancouver. Davie, emerging from bankruptcy at the time, is Canada's largest shipyard and was excluded. Cost estimates have risen since then, Vicefield noted, with the cost ballooning to over $100 billion. And in the six years since the plan was announced, the two winning shipyards have delivered no ships. Officially, Seaspan is to launch its first replacement supply ship in 2021. But Vicefield noted that Andy Smith, the official responsible for shipbuilding in the federal department of fisheries and oceans, told a Commons committee Nov. 7 that Seaspan has a backlog of three ships to build before work on the first supply ship can begin in 2023, for delivery in 2027. Vicefield said that in spite of granting the lion's share of shipbuilding contracts to Halifax, the Conservatives where shut out in Atlantic Canada in the 2015 election, and Steven Blaney, the Conservative MP representing Lévis, was re-elected even though Davie was excluded from the National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy. “The key point here is that shipbuilding contracts do not win votes,” Vicefield said. “But major procurement scandals bring down governments. “If I was in government, I would be worried about a major procurement scandal, where you are spending five, six times the cost to buy a ship than any other country in the world pays and nothing is being delivered.” The Asterix is also a hospital ship and can deliver humanitarian aid in the event of major natural disasters, such as a tsunami or a devastating hurricane. Davie stepped into the breach in 2014, when the navy's two existing supply ships were scrapped and plans by Seaspan to build two replacement supply ships were a distant prospect. The Harper government granted Davie a contract to convert the Asterix into a supply ship for about $600 million as a private-public partnership, with Davie managing the project from stem to stern, its financing, as well as providing its civilian crew and leasing the ship to the federal government for five years. When Justin Trudeau led his Liberals to power in 2015, Irving Shipbuilding leaned on Liberal ministers from the Maritimes to have the contract cancelled. But the work was underway and Ottawa did not block the Asterix project. The Halifax-based and crewed Asterix will supply Canadian navy ships off the east coast, while off the west coast Canadian naval vessels will be supplied by Chilean and Spanish navy supply ships. “Why would you do that when you can put the money back into Canada and ensure the jobs of 800 people here for another two years?” Vicefield said. “It makes no sense.” Vicefield regards the Harper government's plans, renamed by the Liberal government as the National Shipbuilding Strategy, as “mind-boggling” and “a bit of a joke.” And he believes Canada can have three shipyards, including Davie, to build and maintain naval and Coast Guard vessels. “There are about 50 large ships that need replacing,” he said, noting the average age of the Coast Guard fleet is 40 years. “So there is enough work for sure for three shipyards for the next 30 years.” “We haven't been pushing against the National Shipbuilding Strategy,” Vicefield said. “I think it is going to fall on its own.” Irving, which is now building ships in Romania, and Seaspan, which has ordered two ferries to be built in Turkey, are defending the plan, and so far have political support. “They see the writing on the wall,” Vicefield said. “They want to destroy the competition. They see that now they have the upper hand. “But we're not going to let that happen,” he insists. “We're convinced the new government, the Liberals, will actually see sense. “But it is taking time for them to get their feet under the desk.” https://ipolitics.ca/article/chantier-davie-wont-take-no-answer/

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  September 24, 2020 | Local, Security, Other Defence

  Project to buy new pistols for Canadian Forces is once again underway

  David Pugliese The project to purchase pistols to replace the Canadian military's Second World War-era handguns is once again underway and National Defence hopes to have the new weapons by the summer of 2022. The project had been stalled for years after small arms firms rejected in 2011 the federal government requirement that the guns be built at Colt Canada in Kitchener, Ont. In addition, the companies balked at the stipulation they had to turn over their proprietary firearms information to Colt, a firm that some saw as a competitor. But with small arms companies reluctant to bid on the Canadian pistol project, the federal government has had no choice but to drop those requirements and have an open competition. A request for bids will now be issued in early 2021, DND spokeswoman Jessica Lamirande confirmed to this newspaper. She said a “minimum of 9,000” handguns will be purchased. “These are mainly intended for the Canadian Army, and will be issued as required,” she added. The department hopes to have a contract in place by the summer of 2021, with initial deliveries by the summer of 2022, she added. The DND declined to discuss the amount of money that taxpayers will spend on the project. The new handguns will replace the Second World War-era Browning Hi-Power pistols used by the Canadian Forces. The replacement program for the 9mm Browning Hi-Power pistols has been on the books for years. In the fall of 2011, the DND abruptly cancelled plans for the purchase of 10,000 new pistols. The decision to shut the process down came after international firearms companies balked at the stipulation the firms turn over their confidential technical data to Colt Canada so the guns could be manufactured in Canada. Colt is the country's Small Arms Strategic Source and Centre of Excellence. The DND was told at the time by industry representatives that it didn't make economic sense to have Colt manufacture the guns in Canada or to have parts shipped to Colt so the guns could be assembled in Canada. The handgun replacement project has been seen as an example of a highly dysfunctional military procurement system. At one point the DND tried to prevent small arms companies from talking to journalists about the bungled procurement but the department's decree was largely ignored. Under the Munitions Supply Program sole source deals have been directed to Colt Canada to maintain a small arms expertise in the country. In late January Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan announced the purchase of more than 3,600 new C6AI FLEX General Purpose Machine Guns from the company. The $96-million order was a follow-on deal to the 2017 contract for 1,148 of the same machine guns. Some spare parts are included along with cleaning kits and carrying slings in the purchase. Critics pointed out that the cost of each gun worked out to around $27,000, at least twice the amount that other militaries are spending. In February and April two other contracts were directed to Colt to produce a semi-automatic rifle in 7.62 calibre to be used by Canadian Forces sniper teams as an auxiliary weapon. Lamirande said in 2018 changes were made to improve the Munitions Supply Program. Under those changes, new business was no longer automatically given to members of the supply program. Instead a thorough analysis is to be done to decide whether it is better to open a project up to competition or sole source the deal to firms in the Munitions Supply Program. “Factors that are considered include performance, value for money, flexibility, innovation potential, and socio-economic benefits,” Lamirande explained. “We also include considerations for current availability within timeframes and the long term sustainability of the solution.” https://ottawacitizen.com/news/national/defence-watch/project-to-buy-new-pistols-for-canadian-forces-is-once-again-underway