Initial construction to begin in June on new Canadian warships

The work is proceeding even though the Canadian government has yet to sign the actual construction contract to start building the 15 warships.

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Published Apr 30, 2024 • Last updated 1 hour ago • 3 minute read

An artist rendering of the Canadian Surface Combatant. Photo by Lockheed Martin Canada /SUBMITTED

Initial construction of the first of the new Canadian warships estimated to cost as much as $80 billion will begin in June even though an actual contract to build the vessels has yet to be signed.

National Defence’s procurement chief Troy Crosby recently told parliamentarians that low-rate production activities on the Canadian Surface Combatant will begin sometime next month. That will include building a small section of the first structure on the vessel at Irving Shipbuilding on the east coast.

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That work is proceeding even though the Canadian government has yet to sign the actual construction contract to start building the 15 warships.

National Defence spokesman Kened Sadiku explained the contract to build the first ships — known as the implementation contract — won’t be awarded until later this year or early 2025.

But under the current existing deal, low-rate production activities on the ships are covered and building a small section allows for construction techniques to be further refined. “Full-rate production is expected to begin under an implementation contract in 2025,” Sadiku noted.

The first completed CSC was originally to be delivered in the early 2020s. But in February 2021, National Defence admitted the delivery of the first vessel wouldn’t take place until 2030 or 2031.

The project has already faced significant increases in cost from the original estimated price tag of $26 billion. Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux now estimates the cost of the ships to be around $84 billion.

National Defence maintains the cost will be between $56 billion and $60 billion, and its officials have insisted that figure will not go up.

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Critics have labelled the CSC project, the largest single purchase in Canadian history, as a bottomless money pit with little accountability or oversight. Since the construction contract has yet to be signed, they have called for the project to be halted or at least reviewed.

National Defence remains steadfast it will not alter course and that the project, which will acquire ships to replace the current Halifax-class frigates, is a success so far.

Conservative MP Kelly McCauley said he and other MPs believed the construction of the CSC alone would eventually cost more than $100 billion.

This newspaper reported Jan. 24 that National Defence has brought in a new and unprecedented shroud of secrecy around the CSC costs.

After withholding documents for almost three years, the department released nearly 1,700 pages of records that were supposed to outline specific costs and work done so far on the CSC program.

But all the details of what taxpayers have so far spent and what type of work has been done by Irving Shipbuilding for that money were censored from the records.

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In an April 8 appearance before the Senate defence committee, Crosby pointed to ongoing problems with the Arctic and Offshore Patrol Ships being built for the Royal Canadian Navy. He testified that National Defence’s handlings of those problems “gives me great confidence in our ability to take on the much more complex delivery of the Canadian Surface Combatant in the coming years.”

As reported earlier by Postmedia, the CSC program was pitched as a relatively low-cost, off-the-shelf replacement for the Halifax class of warships with a high level of Canadian industrial content.

But, over time, the navy has asked for changes that have frequently replaced Canadian-built content with U.S. technology, the net effect being the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars to Canadian industry and an increase in overall cost, the Postmedia report added.

As costs increased, federal officials have also made it more difficult to get details on spending on the project.

Federal officials have on two occasions tried to stymie attempts by the Parliamentary Budget Officer to obtain details and budget outlines of the CSC project, as well as those of other vessel construction programs under the government’s National Shipbuilding Strategy.

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Industry executives have previously pointed out that the secrecy is not based on security concerns, but on worries the news media and opposition MPs would be able to use the information to keep close tabs on the problem-plagued military procurement system.

David Pugliese is an award-winning journalist covering Canadian Forces and military issues in Canada. To support his work, including exclusive content for subscribers only, sign up here: ottawacitizen.com/subscribe

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