Buy Canadian, shipbuilders say

The federal government must commit to Canada’s shipbuilding industry rather than shopping in places like South Korea and Europe, the Shipbuilding Association of Canada says. “Over the next 25 years, the federal government has plans to spend billions of taxpayer dollars on new ships for the Navy and the Coast Guard,” association president Peter Cairns said yesterday.

The association says “some decision makers in Ottawa” are considering buying these ships from South Korea and Europe. “These ships paid for by taxpayers can and should be built in Canada. These countries will not buy ships from us,” Cairns said.

His statement also said the government’s system for buying ships is broken because ships can’t be provided in a “timely manner.”

“Government must get its act together to work with the industry and its workers in such a way that investment and recapitalization can occur and the highly skilled work force can be consistently employed,” Cairns said. Shipbuilding industries in other countries face similar funding issues.