Seaspan Shipyards invests $1.35M in Indigenous marine skills training
Seaspan Shipyards announced a $1.35 million investment to increase training and apprenticeship opportunities for Indigenous students aged 19 through 30 interested in building a career in the trades, including in the growing shipbuilding and marine sector.
The three-year investment is being made in the Aboriginal Community Career Employment Services Society (ACCESS), a non-profit organization that has been providing education and employment training for the urban Indigenous community since 1999.
Seaspan’s investment will support skills upgrading and technical training in welding and metal fabrication through the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT). Beginning in 2022, Seaspan’s investment will also help establish a Trades Sampler Program to introduce Indigenous high school students in five Lower Mainland districts to career opportunities in the trades. Seaspan’s investment will also support an an
THUNDER BAY – A Thunder Bay shipyard will have a hand in building the new flagship vessel in the Canadian Coast Guard’s icebreaking fleet, with the project expected to create local jobs.
The federal government announced details Thursday of plans to purchase two new heavy ice breakers for the coast guard’s Arctic operations, expanding the capabilities of its aging fleet.
The flagship polar icebreaker, already designated as the CCGS
John G. Diefenbaker, will be built by Vancouver-based Seaspan, the government announced. When completed, it will be the largest ship in the coast guard’s fleet, expected to cost well over $1 billion.
In defence of Canadian shipbuilding
Jeffrey F. Collins: It would be nice if there were an off-the-shelf ship Canada could acquire, but none exist. Nations build ships to meet their own operational demands. By Jeffrey F. Collins
March 5, 2021 HMCS Harry deWolf heads from the Halifax Shipyard on its way to being delivered to the Royal Canadian Navy dockyard in Halifax on July 31, 2020 (CP/Andrew Vaughan)
Jeffrey F. Collins is a Fellow with the Canadian Global Affairs Institute and a researcher in defence procurement
Budgets, it is said, can sink warships. Reports by the Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) and Auditor General (AG) last week into Canada’s National Shipbuilding Strategy (NSS) paint a challenging picture for the multi-decade effort to build 52 large ships for the navy and coast guard. The PBO report estimates that the cost for the yet-to-be-built 15 ship Canadian Surface Combatant (CSC) has jumped from $60 billion to $77 billion. The AG meanwhile pins del
HALIFAX Canada’s auditor general has released a report into Ottawa’s national shipbuilding strategy, finding the strategy has been slow to deliver replacement vessels for the country’s aging Navy and Coast Guard vessels. Karen Hogan’s audit covered Jan. 1, 2018 to Jan. 1, 2020 – before the pandemic began – and looked at whether the federal government was doing enough to handle continual shipbuilding delays. Her report did not focus on the industry’s role. Canada’s National Shipbuilding Strategy was officially launched a decade ago, with Irving Shipbuilding selected in 2011 to build 15 Canadian surface combatants. But work on those vessels has yet to begin, with delivery of the first not expected until 2030.