Quebec-based Chantier Davie Canada Inc. presented a bid, potentially worth up to a billion dollars, to the federal government last month offering a Polar Class 3 icebreaker, three smaller River-class icebreakers and two multi-purpose research, border control and search and rescue ships, says a report in the Canadian Press.
The proposal by Quebec-based Chantier Davie Canada Inc. has the potential to undercut one pillar of the national shipbuilding strategy, which delegates the construction of civilian ships to Vancouver's Seaspan shipyard.
In a presentation to Public Services and Procurement Canada, Davie is partially reviving a pitch made to the former Conservative government in 2013, where it offered to a construct a Polar Class 3 icebreaker and deliver it in 18 months.
Davie claims it can deliver the ships in 18 months and for a fraction of the price of the current set of non-combat vessels being built by Seaspan. The federal Department of Public Services and Procurement has not confirmed receipt of the proposal.
However, Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil and Irving President Kevin McCoy have spoken out against an unsolicited bid by Davie Shipyards for work already being completed at Seaspan as part of the National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy.
McNeil said the bid was odd, and noted the work had already been committed to other yards. McNeil said he expects the federal government to keep its commitments to Seaspan and Irving.
Davie used a similar approach to the federal government when it pitched—and won—a multimillion-dollar contract to provide the navy with a temporary supply ship. The former Harper government had to amend cabinet rules in order to allow the sole-sourced contract to go through.