22 mai 2019 | Local, Naval
Federal government to buy two more Arctic ships from Irving to prevent layoffs
By Lee Berthiaume, The Canadian Press OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is expected to announce Wednesday that the federal government is buying two more Arctic patrol ships on the top of the six it has already ordered from Halifax-based Irving Shipbuilding. However, unlike the first six ships, which are being built for the navy at a total cost of $3.5 billion, a government source said the seventh and eighth will be built for the Canadian Coast Guard. The source, who was not authorized to comment publicly, said the move is intended to address the Canadian Coast Guard's desperate need for new ships. Documents obtained by The Canadian Press earlier this year warned that more than a third of the coast guard's 26 large vessels have exceeded their expected lifespans — and many won't survive until replacements arrive. And that advanced age is already affecting the coast guard's ability to do its job, including reduced search-and-rescue coverage, ferry-service disruptions and cancelled resupply runs to Arctic and coastal communities. The second problem is the threat of layoffs, which Irving has long warned will happen unless the government fills a gap between when the last Arctic patrol ship is finished and construction on the navy's new $60-billion warship fleet, the source said. The government sought to address that gap in November when it ordered the sixth Arctic patrol vessel for the navy from Irving and agreed to pay the shipyard to slow production for a total cost of $800 million. Government officials at the time defended the high cost of that move, saying a third-party assessment commissioned by the government, which has never been made public, indicated it would cost even more to allow a gap to persist. "Ultimately what happens is the workforce gets laid off, you rehire people, it's not the same people so you're retraining, and then you have this learning curve," Patrick Finn, the Defence Department's head of procurement, said in January. "From some of the data we've run, doing what we've done, if we don't do it, we're probably going to pay that much money anyways in inefficiencies and get nothing for it. So the analysis shows that this is really a prudent way forward." Even then, federal bureaucrats and Irving both warned more would need to be done as even with those measures, there was still the threat of an 18- to 24-month gap between construction of the two fleets. Lee Berthiaume, The Canadian Press https://www.nationalnewswatch.com/2019/05/21/federal-government-to-buy-two-more-arctic-ships-from-irving-to-prevent-layoffs-2/#.XOVcKshKiUm
This call will invite research proposals from multi-disciplinary teams in the field of 5G Networks. Teams must be led by an investigator from a Canadian university, and can be composed of investigators from Canadian universities and educational institutions, not-for-profit organizations, for-profit organizations, provincial/territorial/municipal governments, and international universities and education institutions. Teams will be encouraged to develop and submit interdisciplinary research proposals addressing one or several areas identified in the call Science & Technology (S&T) Challenge Statement.
The Corrosion Detection in Ships Sandbox (CDIS), previously postponed due to COVID-19 restrictions, is set to re-launch its Call for Applications in November 2021, with the sandbox occurring in April/May 2022. Applications for this Sandbox will be open to all innovators, including those that did not previously apply. The pandemic situation will continue to be monitored and plans adjusted as necessary to conduct the Sandbox in a safe manner.
Cet appel sera lancé afin d'obtenir des propositions de recherche de la part d'équipes multidisciplinaires dans le domaine des Réseaux d'innovation 5G. Les équipes devront être dirigées par un chercheur d'une université canadienne, et peuvent être composées de chercheurs provenant des universités et établissements d'enseignement canadiens, d'organismes à but lucratif ou non lucratif, d'organismes provinciaux/territoriaux ou municipaux, et des universités et établissements d'enseignement internationaux. Les équipes seront invitées à élaborer et à soumettre des propositions de recherche interdisciplinaire sur un ou plusieurs sujets identifiés au moment de l'appel de propositions, dans le Défi scientifique et technologique.
navires (CDIS), précédemment reporté en raison des restrictions liées à la COVID-19, ira de l'avant avec un nouvel appel de candidatures en novembre 2021, l'environnement protégé ayant lieu en avril/mai 2022. Les candidatures pour l'environnement protégé seront ouvertes à tous les innovateurs, y compris ceux qui n'avaient pas appliqué auparavant. La situation pandémique continuera d'être surveillée et les plans ajustés si nécessaire pour mener l'environnement protégé de manière sûre.