Friday, April 18, 2025
The Government of Canada announced that two contracts have been awarded to Seaspan’s Vancouver Shipyards Co. Ltd. (VSY), with a combined value of $490.6 million to initiate the next stages of procuring the first flight of Multi-Purpose Vessels (MPVs) for the Canadian Coast Guard (CCG). These contracts will allow VSY to undertake vital pre-construction work, such as selecting specific pieces of equipment, refining the design, ensuring all necessary information and plans are in place, and procuring essential material items needed to begin construction.
The Multi-Purpose Vessel (MPV) project will result in highly versatile icebreaking ships designed with multi-mission capabilities. These new vessels will support a wide variety of critical services, such as icebreaking, maritime search and rescue, scientific research, environmental response, emergency towing, maintenance and deployment of buoys, as well as support for offshore fisheries patrols.
“The Multi-Purpose Vessel project will help ensure that members of the Canadian Coast Guard have versatile vessels to complete essential missions in Canada’s oceans and waterways. By awarding the construction engineering services and goods contracts, we are making significant progress toward completing the design and preparing for construction.” said Jean-Yves Duclos, Minister of Public Services and Procurement.
A $310.2-million construction engineering services contract has been awarded for work to complete the design of the first flight of 6 MPVs and ensure that the technical requirements provided by the CCG are met. A second $180.4-million goods contract has been awarded for work to procure materials with long-lead manufacturing time and other items that will be required in advance of construction of the first six MPVs.
“The designers and the ship builders of Seaspan’s Vancouver Shipyard – are playing key roles in taking the Canadian Coast Guard’s new multi-purpose vessels (MPVs) out of the drawing room and into the open ocean. The contracts announced today are an important milestone to getting these ships completed and represent a major investment in North Vancouver. This will secure good jobs while advancing the delivery of the MPVs to significantly expand the operational capacity of our Coast Guard for years to come,” said Jonathan Wilkinson, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources.
The MPV project is a multi-stage procurement with distinct contracts to design and subsequently construct the MPVs. The first contract was awarded to VSY in August 2020 for the development of the MPV concept design. The contracts announced today will build upon the work completed under the first contract.
“The Canadian Coast Guard needs to be equipped with the vessels required to continue its vital work. At the same time, our government is making sure that the contracts awarded will generate significant economic benefits for Canadians. Canada’s collaboration with Seaspan’s Vancouver Shipyards Co. Ltd. will bring further investments to the Canadian marine industry, while creating high-value jobs in shipbuilding design, engineering, marine systems and equipment, as well as supporting innovation in the industry,” said François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry.
The National Shipbuilding Strategy (NSS) is creating jobs in Canada’s shipbuilding industry and marine sector, and providing members of the CCG with the equipment they need to ensure safe and accessible waterways for Canadians. Contracts under the NSS are estimated to have contributed close to $25 billion ($2.1 billion annually) to Canada’s gross domestic product between 2012 and 2022, and created or maintained over 18,800 jobs annually between 2012 and 2023.
Featured image: (Government of Canada)
