Harper Government Gave Seaspan Shipyard $40M Contract On Election Day

On the very day of its defeat last fall, the Harper government quietly awarded a $40-million "engineering" contract to the Seaspan shipyard in North Vancouver, despite having promised that the yard would prepare itself to build new ships "at no cost to Canada."

Two months later, in December 2015, a confidential report for the new Liberal government, obtained by CBC News, found that the program remains chaotic, poorly managed and marked by "fragmentation, inefficiencies and delays."

Warship contract would bring sea change in industry, builder says

Vancouver should brace itself for significant change if Vancouver Shipyards Company wins a portion of the $35-billion in federal contracts for new warships and other vessels this fall, a company executive says.

In an interview shortly after the company submitted its bid, John Shaw, a vice-president at the parent company Seaspan Marine Corp., said winning the contract would mean expansion of training and apprenticeship programs, and a search for more than 2,000 new employees.

“We would be rebuilding an industry. … We’re at a point where we would have to train a whole new generation on shipbuilding,” Mr. Shaw said. “It would be a huge change here.”