Davie VP: Irving Shipbuilding ‘like a naughty child asking if his mummy still loves him’
A longstanding spat between two of Canada’s largest shipyards has been heating up — name calling and all — and experts say it’s likely to get worse.
Last week, Quebec-based shipbuilder Chantier Davie Canada Inc. won a $610-million contract to convert three icebreakers for the Canadian Coast Guard.
During a news conference in Levis on Friday, Steven MacKinnon, parliamentary secretary for public services and procurement Canada, told reporters that other shipyards, including Davie, will continue to have opportunities to win work as part of the National Shipbuilding Strategy (NSS).
Some media outlets that reported on the event framed MacKinnon’s statements as a retooling of the overall strategy — a massive multibillion-dollar, decades-long endeavour — that could see Davie possibly inch its way into work that has already been awarded to other shipyards.
During the news conference, a Davie executive also alluded to an NSS ‘refresh’ that the company claims to have been informed by government will be announced in the fall.
All this was cause for concern for Irving Shipbuilding in Halifax, which was named prime contractor for the combat portion of the NSS in 2011 and has been tasked with building six Arctic and offshore patrol ships and 15 new warships for a cost of around $60 billion.
In a media release issued Monday, Irving spokesman Sean Lewis asked for clarification from the government that the work, and associated jobs, would not be reallocated from Irving or Vancouver-based Seaspan, which is responsible for the smaller non-combat portion of the National Shipbuilding Strategy.
Responding to a request for comment from The Chronicle Herald on Tuesday, Frederik Boisvert, VP of public affairs with Davie, sent two different statements via text message, both of which he attempted to rescind saying they were draft statements that weren’t intended to be sent.
In one of those messages, Boisvert says the ‘long-awaited reform’ of the 2011 NSS that is soon to be announced has tensions running high at the offices of Davies’ competitor.
“So much so that Irving Shipbuilding, like a naughty child asking if his mummy still loves him, published a press release <...> asking the government to confirm that all was still OK.”
He then goes on to say the umbrella agreements between Irving and Seaspan are non-binding and that the government has a free hand in determining where to build its ships.
In a third and final statement, Boisvert commends the federal government for a long-awaited reform of its shipbuilding plans and touts the benefits of having Davie as a partner in the ‘new National Shipbuilding Strategy.’
By many accounts, however, there is no new strategy or reformation that has been announced or has yet to be announced.
The Office of Procurement Minister Carla Qualtrough confirmed on Monday and reiterated on Tuesday: the announcement Friday did not make any changes to the strategy and the work at Irving and Seaspan remains and will continue to remain unchanged.
But when MacKinnon was pressed by reporters on Friday about whether the rumoured refresh of the NSS was coming, and whether that meant more work for Davie, he was vague.
More peculiar still, back in March, The Chronicle Herald reported on a political poll that asked Halifax residents, in between questions about their MP’s performance, how important Irving continuing its role as the primary contractor on the National Shipbuilding Strategy is in deciding their vote. At the time, the NDP and Conservative parties both denied that the poll was theirs, and the Liberal party would not comment.
David Perry, senior analyst with the Canadian Global Affairs Institute, told The Chronicle Herald that although many people equate the NSS with the work being done by Irving and Seaspan, the project was always about the larger picture.
All shipyards in Canada have always had the opportunity to bid on repair, maintenance and refit work related to the NSS, and even for new builds for smaller vessels.
The work awarded to Davie thus far, the icebreakers as well as converting a commercial container ship — MV Asterix — into an interim auxiliary naval replenishment ship, has all fallen under those categories, Perry said, and does not in any way signal a change in the program.
“When the government talks about the shipbuilding strategy they mostly talk about the major packages of work, they don’t talk about all the other repair refit maintenance stuff,” he said. “(Davie) has always been eligible for the other stuff.”
So if there has been no change to the shipbuilding strategy, why is it being framed that way?
Ken Hansen, a retired navy commander and defence analyst, says it’s par for the course.
“There’s no love lost between these two companies. It’s warfare as far as they’re concerned, there’s really deep and old animosity between them,” he said.
Davie, which was emerging from bankruptcy when the NSS contracts were awarded in 2011, has long called foul on the Irving contract, but according to Hansen the rift between the two companies goes back decades, as one might expect of two competing companies in a relatively limited industry.
Hansen thinks the spin by Davie is simply a PR move to gain support among politicians.
“There is no change to the way this is working, but (Davie) is trying to make it look that way for political gain. They need allies, they’re still trying to crack this nut — they want back into where the big money is and the big money is all in Irving’s hands,” he said.
“They’re trying to build momentum to give the politicians the courage to reopen this issue.”
Hansen said it’s too early to tell if Davie will be successful, but cautioned that any change will cause a lot of unrest and even more delays in delivering ships the navy needs.
“They can’t start pulling this apart and cutting pieces of the carcass to send to a third place, which is what always happens in this country,” he said.
As for the rumours, spin, and drama, Hansen said it will get worse unless the government offers full clarity on the issue,
“It’s been really bad in the past and what you’re seeing here is an indication it’s going to get worse,” he said. “They’re playing games and the government has got to sort it out quick.”
