Vancouver shipbuilders win $3.3-billion contract

Vancouver shipbuilders got a huge surprise Monday, as the federal government announced it is ordering an additional 10 Canadian Coast Guard vessels, worth an estimated $3.3 billion.

That is on top of the $8 billion already on the books at Vancouver Shipyards for new Coast Guard science and fishery ships, naval resupply vessels and a heavy icebreaker, and represents a huge vote of confidence as the shipyard prepares to cut steel on the first of those ships.

It also brings the total amount budgeted in the federal government’s national shipbuilding strategy to $38.3 billion — the other $25 billion consisting of new frigates, destroyers and armed patrol ships for the Arctic, all of which are being constructed in Halifax.

Read more