Page 142: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (June 1993)

Canadian Shipbuilding

Canadian Yards Remain Active Despite Limited Funds

J. Y. Clarke, president

Canadian Maritime Industries Association

According to 1992 Canadian sta- tistics, last year saw an average of 10,283 shipyard employees com- pared to 11,333 a year earlier, for a reduction of 1,050 workers, or 9.3 percent of the shipyard workforce.

Canada's two largest shipyards,

MIL Davie at Lauzon, Quebec and

Saint John Shipbuilding at Saint

John, New Brunswick, remain en- gaged on naval contracts to date. At the MIL Davie yard, all three patrol frigates are in the water being out- fitted, and all will have been deliv- ered to the Navy by the end of 1994.

The last two Tribal Class guided missile destroyers will also have com- pleted their major modernizations by that time and, at present, there is no sign of new major contracts to come next year. Thus the present outlook is understandably gloomy.

At Saint John Shipyard, work is progressing well on the remaining ships of the second batch of six pa- trol frigates, the last of which is scheduled for delivery in 1996. By then, Saint John Shipbuilding will also have been faced with major lay- offs of top-notch engineers, techni- cians and skilled workers, unless further contracts for sophisticated ships are forthcoming.

In other East Coast yards, peri- odic refitting and docking of ferries and fishing vessels, construction of a passenger ferry for the

Northumberland Straits, and fabri- cation of structures for the Hibernia project are currently in progress.

With respect to an outlook for the future, the National Defense order for 12 Maritime Coastal Defense

Vessels will result in a start-up of activity in a major shipyard this

Fall.

Further fabrication work for

Hibernia and continuing refits and dockings of East Coast ferries, as well as commercial vessels, are all that can be predicted at present.

However, considerable work for maritime industries will undoubt- edly evolve from the "Fixed Link to

PEI" Project, if and when it gets underway.

In the Great Lakes, sequential refit of two Navy destroyer-escorts, together with routine maintenance of lakers and other commercial ves- sels, will keep the major shipyard in the area, as well as a few smaller yards, viable. On the West Coast, the second of two large "super-fer- ries," which are Ro/Ro car-passen- ger vessels, is progressing well with completion scheduled for this Fall.

The first is already completed, as are two smaller ferries, all for the

BC Ferry Corporation. The super- ferries are built in three separate shipyards, with major segments floated or barged to the large grav- ing dock at Esquimalt for assembly.

Other activity in West Coast ship- yards is restricted to construction of fishing vessels and pleasure crafts, and refits of HMCS Protecteur as well as several tugs, barges and fish boats.

Beyond the immediate future, a need for replacement programs for aging Canadian commercial fleets, both domestic and international, grows more urgent with each pass- ing year. In addition, the require- ment to replace old tankers with modern double-hull versions is also becoming urgent at a time when cash-flows and capital reserves are very low.

Concerning allied maritime in- dustries, i.e., ship designers, ma- rine equipment manufacturers and distributors, as well as marine engi- neering consultant services, the story is not as grim. A number of our allied industry members are in- creasing their sales due to exports to the U.S. and abroad. Reasons for this growth are the forming of part- nerships within Canada or of joint ventures with foreign companies.

An example of this is the recent formation of the Western Canada

Marine Group, formed by a core of six private companies supported by governments, which functions as a single entity to offer design, project management, financial services and a total equipment and service pack- age to support offshore or domestic shipbuilding activities.

Activities such as these, together with the aggressive marketing of major Canadian shipyards to pro- spective foreign markets, are deemed to be the optimum "way ahead" for our maritime industrial sector, in the sense that a strong commercial component to comple- ment future government require- ments could well re-instate a ma- rine industrial base in Canada.

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