One of Canada’s most ambitious nation-building projects is already underway.
With little fanfare, the Royal Canadian Navy and the Canadian Coast Guard are being outfitted with billions of dollars’ worth of world-class destroyers, icebreakers, and supply and research ships.
Future nation-building projects aimed at bulking up the country’s defence capabilities and its industrial prowess will look much like this one. That includes Canada using joint-venture shipbuilding contracts to strengthen ties with our allies.
In Halifax, construction is beginning on three “River Class” destroyers, part of a 15-ship contract.
The first three destroyers are expected to cost about $22.2 billion and are named for the major rivers that empty into Canada’s oceans — the His Majesty’s Canadian Ships Fraser, Saint-Laurent and Mackenzie.
The first of the destroyers is scheduled to be completed in 2027 in a project that will create more than 5,000 jobs across Canada.
Built by Halifax-based Irving Shipbuilding, the destroyers are combat ships also able to take on missions including counterterrorism, counter-piracy, humanitarian assistance, surveillance and other functions.
“These impressive ships will offer an incredible capacity to the Royal Canadian Navy and Canada, ensuring we can defend our waters against any adversary and deliver front-line combat power anywhere in the world,” Royal Canadian Navy Cmdr. Angus Topshee said at the formal awarding of the Irving contract in March.
On Canada’s West Coast, Seaspan Shipyards launched the HMCS Protecteur in December and is at work on the HMCS Preserver, to be launched in 2027. And in April, Seaspan began construction of a $3.15- billion heavy polar icebreaker for the Coast Guard to be completed in 2032.
The total price tag for the Protecteur and the Preserver is about $3.4 billion, part of a multi-year project for the North Vancouver shipyard to replace aging Royal Canadian Navy and Coast Guard vessels.
At 173.7 metres, the Protecteur is the longest naval ship ever built in Canada. It will resupply the Royal Canadian Navy and allied warships at sea with fuel, food, ammunition and spare parts.
The Preserver is an oceanographic scientific research vessel.
In April, Seaspan struck a preliminary agreement with Ontario’s Algoma Steel and Stigterstaal Canada to re-establish a domestic supply chain for steel used in shipbuilding.
In addition to providing sovereign shipbuilding capabilities, Seaspan has contributed about $5.7 billion to Canada’s GDP since 2012 and created or sustained more than 7,000 jobs per year.
This month, construction began in Helsinki on a heavy polar icebreaker, the Polar Max, for the Canadian Coast Guard. The ship will be capable of oil-spill response and Arctic sovereignty functions.
Helsinki Shipyard, among the world’s largest makers of icebreakers, was purchased in 2023 by Chantier Davie Canada with support from the Quebec government.
Davie is based in Lévis, Que., and owned by holding company British Inocea Group.
The value of the Polar Max contract is $3.25 billion. The hull of the ship will be fabricated in Finland with most of the construction taking place in Lévis. Completion is scheduled for 2030.
The Polar Max is “the boldest of statements to allies and adversaries that Canada and Finland are moving with purpose to secure the Arctic,” James Davies, CEO of Davie, told reporters when construction began on the Polar Max on Aug. 20.
And Hamilton-based Ontario Shipyards, with backing from the Ontario government, hopes to be part of Canada’s shipbuilding renaissance.
With facilities in Hamilton, Port Weller, Thunder Bay and St. Catharines, Ontario Shipyards is already one of the largest ship repair and construction firms on the Great Lakes.
The Ford government last month provided Ontario Shipyards with $215 million in subsidies to develop the capability to build military ships.
Ontario Shipyards is partnered with companies in three other NATO countries in a consortium that expects to bid on a multibillion-dollar federal contract to build corvettes for the Royal Canadian Navy.
The corvettes are relatively small vessels used in coastal and fisheries patrol, drug interdiction, minesweeping and other functions.
Ontario Shipyards might be on the inside track for the contract, expected to be open to bidding in the fall, since it is the only large Canadian shipbuilder with underutilized capacity.
The consortium also includes Italy’s Fincantieri S.p.A. and France’s Thales S.A., renowned for their shipbuilding and electronics capabilities, respectively, and SH Group A/S, a Danish maker of modular loading systems used in assembling ship components.
Geopolitical tensions are driving this nation-building project.
There is mounting concern about the presence of Russian and Chinese vessels in the Canadian Arctic. Melting ice caps are opening new sea lanes with access to critical minerals.
The Canadian Coast Guard has the world’s second-largest number of icebreakers, at 18, though only two are heavy polar icebreakers like those under construction at Seaspan and Davie.
The heavy icebreakers can operate at higher latitudes for longer periods than earlier-generation ships. Russia has about 40 icebreakers.
“There is a need for more icebreakers within NATO,” Industry Minister Mélanie Joly told Bloomberg this month. “Canada is leading the way.”
