New estimates released by Canada’s federal government indicate the projected cost for new combat ships to be $4 billion more than original projections.
In 2011, Irving Shipbuilding of Halifax, Nova Scotia was originally awarded a $25 billion contract for 23 new combat ships.
A new report says that cost will be just over $29 billion.
On Canada’s west coast, Seaspan Marine of British Columbia was slated to receive contracts worth $8 billion for large non-combat ships, and another $2 billion was for many smaller ships.
When Irving won the contract back in 2011, politicians, industry and the media repeatedly cited the deal as being worth $25 billion.
The contracts call for about $3.1 billion to be designated towards up to eight Arctic/offshore patrol ships, while up to 15 Canadian navy “surface combatants” are now projected to cost $26.2 billion.
The government says the breakdown of 25-8-2 was never official, and Seaspan’s cut is expected to come in under the $8 billion figure, even though they were awarded additional work last month .
In addition to the original fisheries science vessels, two joint military supply ships and a polar icebreaker, the added work involves up to five offshore patrol vessels and up to five medium-endurance multi-tasked vessels at a total cost of $3.3 billion.
The added work brings the total Seaspan bill up to $7.6 billion.
The total budget for all the ships is now $36.6 billion.
Meanwhile a new total lifespan cost for the up to 25 warships over a 30 year span is now at $105 billion according to a status update released by the Department of Public Works this week.
The agency says those “through-life costs” will need to be refined over time.
A spokesperson for Public Works says the ship procurement will provide jobs for up to 15,000 Canadians and decades of work.
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