SEASPAN Shipyards is cheering the news that the company will be building more ships than originally announced under the federal government's national shipbuilding strategy.
The announcement that Seaspan will build additional Coast Guard vessels for more than $4 billion was contained in last week's federal budget.
The ships will be in addition to the seven ships already announced by the federal government in the first part of its contract with Seaspan to build non-combat ships including fisheries vessels, navy support ships and an icebreaker.
It's unclear how many ships are included in the announcement.
"It sounds like it's a few ships," said Jonathan Whitworth, chief executive officer of Seaspan. "We're standing by with bated breath."
Likely the money for the new ships is part of the $8 billion already allocated to the non-combat shipbuilding program over the next 20 years.
Whitworth said what the announcement does mean, however, is that the shipyard's work on the federal government contract will extend beyond the already-expected eight to 10 years of work on the first seven vessels. "That's the really sweet stuff," he said. "It's continuity and longevity."
Whitworth said Seaspan always anticipated further vessels would be included in the non-combat contract, but didn't know the announcement would come so soon.
The overall contract is expected to create about 1,000 direct jobs at the shipyard, and up to 4,000 jobs including indirect and spin-off jobs in the local economy.
Recently, Seaspan announced a new president of shipyards and expects to fill close to 70 professional positions in the next six to nine months.
Physical construction at the shipyard to accommodate the new shipbuilding is expected to start by the end of this year.
Seaspan anticipates starting on its first federal vessel under the program - a 55-metre fisheries research vessel - next year.
In February, the federal government and Seaspan signed an umbrella agreement for construction of the non-combat ships, defining arrangements under which Ottawa will negotiate "fair and reasonable" contracts to build the vessels.
Seaspan is expected to invest $150 million to upgrade its facilities on the North Shore and in Victoria, and the province will spend $35 million on skills training.
The announcement in October that Seaspan had won the noncombat contract marked the end of a high-stakes three-way race between the East-and West-coast companies to secure one of two lucrative federal deals.
Irving Shipyard in Halifax was awarded the $25-billion contract to build combat vessels.
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