David Pugliese, Ottawa Citizen
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.”
Companies, however, only have two weeks to respond to the request for information.
The whole exercise has the feel of a government checking the boxes off before awarding the contract to Davie. Or it could be a measure to head off any legal challenge from other shipyards who would complain that a “fair, open and transparent” competition was not run.
Cecely Roy, press secretary to Procurement Minister Anita Anand, said in an email to this newspaper that as “a significant amount of time has passed since the last commissioned studies on the capacity of domestic shipyards, this RFI was initiated to provide updated information to inform the government's decisions on the procurement process moving forward.”
The polar icebreaker, the future Canadian Coast Guard Ship (CCGS) John G. Diefenbaker, will replace Canada's current largest icebreaker, the CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent. The current fleet of heavy icebreakers, including the CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent, remain in good condition and will be in operation until the polar icebreaker is delivered, according to the federal government.
The Polar Class project was announced by the Conservative government in 2008 and has faced delays ever since. The ship had been expected to be in service in 2017. That date changed to 2021. Now there is no known date for the vessel to be operating. “The delivery date for the polar icebreaker will be identified as the project gets underway,” the federal government added in its news release.
“At this stage, we are exploring options to ensure the Polar Icebreaker is built in the most efficient manner to meet the needs of the Coast Guard, but a decision was not been made on the contract award, nor will this RFI result in that decision,” Roy said in an email to this newspaper.
26 septembre 2024 | Local, Naval
September 26, 2024 – Broome, Australia – National Defence / Canadian Armed Forces His Majesty’s Canadian Ship (HMCS) Vancouver completed a forward rearmament in Australia on September 23, 2024, more than halfway through its six-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region on Operation HORIZON.
6 février 2019 | Local, Naval
Murray Brewster · CBC News The Liberal government has decided to pull out all the stops on the construction of the navy's planned permanent supply ships — a move that's raised questions about how quickly the Canadian Coast Guard will get a critical oceanographic science vessel. Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) issued a statement Tuesday that announced the re-sequencing of the construction schedules for vessels being built at the Vancouver Shipyard, which is owned by Seaspan. The company has already started preliminary construction work on the first of the navy's long-awaited Joint Support Ships and the federal government says the work will continue until the vessel is completed. Under the National Shipbuilding Strategy, Seaspan was suppose to first construct three small fisheries research ships and a larger oceanographic vessel before working on the navy's long-awaited supply ships. Adhering to that plan in the face of repeated organizational delays meant delivery of those supply ships — which are considered critical to allowing the navy to operate beyond Canadian shores — would not happen until 2023 at the earliest. The PSPC statement said that once the first supply ship is finished, Seaspan will turn its attention to the coast guard oceanographic ship and then build the last planned naval supply ship. "Given the complexity of this build, this change in sequencing will ensure focused engineering resources on each of the projects, while allowing for time between construction of the first and second [Joint Support Ship] to incorporate lessons learned," said PSPC spokesman Pierre-Alain Bujold in a statement. "Moreover, this allows for uninterrupted work at the shipyard, mitigating the risk of potential layoffs and production gaps between builds." Bujold said additional details on the construction schedule will be released at a later date. The change to the schedule was, according to sources in the defence industry, agreed upon at the recent Trudeau government cabinet retreat in Sherbrooke, Que. Rob Huebert, a defence expert at the University of Calgary, said the decision "leaves most people scratching their heads" because of the difficulty involved in getting a shipyard to switch up construction between different types of vessels. "Why you would interrupt the building of ships by putting another style and class of vessel in the middle completely boggles my mind," said Huebert, a noted expert on the Arctic. "I don't know why you would do it." If anything, he said, the federal government should simply build both naval ships and then move on the coast guard ship. The re-sequencing means the navy could be waiting until the late 2020s for its second supply vessel, which would make the program a multi-decade odyssey. The Liberal government of former prime minister Paul Martin originally ordered the replacement of the auxiliary ships in 2004, but the program was cancelled in 2008 by the Conservatives when cost estimates exceeded the budget envelope. Huebert said Tuesday's announcement also raises questions about when Canadians will see the heavy icebreaker that Seaspan is also slated to build. The PSPC website says the program is under review and "no activities are planned until work on other projects has advanced." The federal government apparently has not yet formally notified Seaspan of the schedule change, although the shipyard has awarded a series of sub-contracts to companies such as INDAL in Mississauga, Ont., and L3 MAPPS in Montreal, for supply ship components. Seaspan is expected to announce another contract on Wednesday with Lockheed Martin Canada related to the supply ships. Ever since the Conservatives cancelled the first iteration of the supply ship project, the federal government has struggled to get it back on track, setting and missing several deadlines. The supply ships were supposed to arrive in 2017. The date was pushed back to 2019, and then to 2022. The absence of a supply ship prompted the Davie shipyard, in Levis, Que., to pitch a converted civilian cargo ship for navy use. That $668 million lease deal is at the centre of the breach-of-trust case against Vice-Admiral Mark Norman. Davie is pitching the federal government on leasing another cargo ship. A spokesman for Davie, Frederik Boisvert, called Tuesday's decision "an insult to taxpayers" and claimed that Seaspan has failed to deliver on the supply ship project and "should be blacklisted by the government and not rewarded for failure." The effect of switching up the schedule means the navy might not need a second supply ship leasing deal. Sources within the coast guard and the defence industry have said that the design and project coordination for the fisheries science vessel is not as far advanced as the navy supply ship program and that is an important factor in the federal government's timing decision. https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/ottawa-pushes-navy-s-planned-supply-ships-to-the-front-of-the-construction-queue-1.5006785
1 juin 2023 | Local, Aérospatial
Le 1er juin 2023 – Ottawa (Ontario) – Défense nationale/Forces armées canadiennes Le général Wayne Eyre, chef d’état-major de la Défense, a annoncé la deuxième promotion au grade de lieutenant-général/vice-amiral de 2023. Le major-général B.F. Frawley a été promu au grade de lieutenant-général et sera nommé commandant adjoint du Commandement de la défense aérospatiale de l’Amérique du Nord (NORAD) à Colorado Springs, au Colorado, en remplacement du lieutenant‑général A.J.P. Pelletier, qui prendra sa retraite des Forces armées canadiennes. Le NORAD est un commandement militaire binational chargé d’assurer l’alerte aérospatiale et maritime ainsi que le contrôle aérospatial pour le Canada et les États-Unis. Il est la pierre angulaire de la relation de défense qu’entretient le Canada avec les États-Unis, et il procure aux deux pays une sécurité continentale plus grande que celle que chacun d’eux pourrait assurer individuellement. Le commandant adjoint du NORAD appuie le commandant du NORAD dans l’exécution des missions du commandement. Puisque le NORAD est un organisme de commandement binational, la nomination du commandant adjoint doit être approuvée par le Canada et les États-Unis. Dans nos deux pays, les Canadiens et les Américains surveillent et défendent l’espace aérien nord-américain 24 heures sur 24, 7 jours sur 7 et 365 jours par année. Il s’agit d’une relation militaire sans égale, fondée sur des valeurs communes, l’amitié et un lien durable et indéfectible. Les Forces armées canadiennes (FAC), par l’entremise de leur processus de promotion en constante évolution, continuent de choisir des dirigeants inclusifs qui incarnent les valeurs professionnelles et l’éthos de l’institution. Les candidats admissibles à une promotion sont soumis à une évaluation du caractère fondée sur des données probantes, suivie d’une évaluation à « 360 degrés » réalisée au moyen d’un outil d’évaluation multisources. Cette approche fait appel à un groupe diversifié d’évaluateurs pour réduire les préjugés et favoriser la diversité des points de vue afin d’obtenir une perspective globale des comportements et de l’efficacité des candidats en matière de leadership. De plus, les candidats sont soumis à une entrevue menée par un tiers indépendant du ministère de la Défense nationale et des FAC, qui met l’accent sur les expériences personnelles, la conscience de soi, les défis passés, les échecs et les réussites. De plus amples détails sur le processus de sélection en vue d’une promotion sont accessibles ici. D’autres promotions, nominations et départs à la retraite seront annoncés une fois confirmés. https://www.canada.ca/fr/ministere-defense-nationale/nouvelles/2023/06/le-chef-detat-major-de-la-defense-annonce-la-nomination-du-nouveau-commandant-adjoint-du-commandement-de-la-defense-aerospatiale-de-lamerique-du-nord.html