[DIV class=headline]Navy gets 3 new supply ships
[DIV class=subheadline]Shipbuilding industry receives a needed boost
Part of massive spending program for the military
[DIV class=pubdate]Jun. 27, 2006. 01:00 AM
[DIV class=byline]MURRAY BREWSTER
[DIV class=byline]CANADIAN PRESS[/DIV]
[DIV class=articlebody][!-- icx_story_begin --]HALIFAX—The federal Conservatives will pick up where the former Liberal government left off and follow through with a $2.1-billion plan to build three navy supply ships, breathing a bit of life into the moribund Canadian shipbuilding industry.
But several questions — including how much work Canadians firms will get, where the 28,000-tonne heavy-lift ships will be built, and what other projects may be cut to pay for the program — remained unanswered yesterday as senior military officials simply celebrated the fact the plan was going forward.
The joint support ships and yet-to-be-announced helicopters, big transport aircraft and trucks are all part of a program to "put spine back in the Canadian Forces' ability to help people," said Gen. Rick Hillier, the chief of defence staff.
The military "is getting over decades of benign neglect here. (Transport) is what we have to fix first."
The Canadian Forces are growing for the first time in his 36-year career, said a jubilant Rear Admiral Dan McNeil.
"This is the most optimistic I've been in my whole career," said the commander of Joint Task Force Atlantic. "You can grow Forces and have more people, but you can't get the job done without the equipment."
Four consortiums are bidding on the shipbuilding contract, which could be as much as two years away from being awarded. The first vessel won't hit the water until 2012.
Irving Shipbuilding, ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems AG, BAE Systems Ltd. and SNC Lavalin ProFac Inc. all met the federal qualifications to build and maintain the new ships.
Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor, a former arms lobbyist, admitted working at one time for at least one of the competing companies, but not on a project to do with the navy.
"I have disclosed everything," O'Connor said. "I own no shares in any company. I have no connections with any company."
NDP Veterans Affairs critic Peter Stoffer accepts O'Connor's word when it comes to the supply ships. But he said the question of the minister's former life would be more pertinent later in the week when the Conservatives announce other defence contracts, including a possible deal for transport planes.
For the naval ships, there is a requirement that principal construction take place in Canada.
All four competiting groups have shipyards, or partners that have shipyards, in the country.
However, there is no stipulation that the design work, or the follow-up maintenance, be carried out in Canada, Defence officials noted in a background briefing.[/DIV]
