Dr. Ann Griffiths, 11 January 2021. I have been trying to find out what is happening with the National Shipbuilding Strategy (NSS). As a multi-billion dollar government program, you would think that this would mean government attention and publicly available information about it. You would be wrong. When I googled […]
NSS
Dan Middlemiss, 15 December 2020. I recently posted a short summary of an article by journalist David Pugliese on the rising costs of the Canadian Surface Combatant (CSC).[1] This led to a few comments discussing related publications concerning defence funding as it might pertain to the CSC and other defence […]
Procrustes, 26 November 2020. Through Access To Information (ATI) documents, the Canadian Press reports that the Canadian Navy has planned for some time to rely upon Chantier-Davies’ converted civilian container ship MV Asterix even after Seaspan builds its two Joint Support Ships (JSS). [1] The original plan was for three […]
Unless the RCN wants to rely on friends and allies, Canada needs support ships/Auxiliary Oiler Replenishment (AOR) ships when RCN ships deploy. Until about five years ago, Canada had two AORs – HMCS Preserver and HMCS Protecteur – but both ships have now been retired. This meant that Canada had […]
RCN Media Release, 31 July 2020. The ultimate milestone in shipbuilding procurement is finally here, a first for the Royal Canadian Navy under the National Shipbuilding Strategy! The first Arctic and Offshore Patrol Ship, the HMCS Harry DeWolf was formally accepted and delivered to Canada on 31 July 2020. The […]
Procrustes, 08 June 2020. This is further to my earlier post about NSS contracts. An early unpublished, but apparently widely circulated, 2015 Price Waterhouse Cooper study concluded that these types of contracts create ‘perverse incentives’ for shipbuilders to drive up their labour costs to maximize their profits. It is worth […]
Procrustes, 08 June 2020. Shipbuilding contracts generally tend to be shrouded in mystery, and normally stir few passions. However, Canadians deserve slightly more information than they are receiving about the contracting procedures governing the NSS. What do we need to know? What types of contracts are being used? What is […]
Procrustes, 16 May 2020 As Canada contemplates some gradual easing of the many regulations imposed on virtually every sector of the national economy, economists and other public policy experts are in general agreement that paying for the current emergency measures and then finding money to help kick-start the locked down […]
October 2019. The federal government has made some changes to the National Shipbuilding Strategy. The latest was in May 2019 when the government announced that it would competitively select a third NSS shipyard, and later announced that this third shipyard could expect to build six icebreakers for the Canadian Coast […]
7 November 2018. The recent announcement by the Minister of National Defence in Halifax Shipyards that a sixth Arctic Offshore Patrol Ship (AOPS) would be built and the welcome news for Davie and Vancouver Shipyards to administer the Halifax-class refits in the near future is great news for all shipyard […]