Repair orders could save jobs at Canadian yard

The yard had announced last month that as from the end of September it would begin laying off an unspecified number of workers from its 900-strong workforce. It is not known exactly which trades these measures will affect, or now many of the jobs will be saved through the new repair contracts.

The first new repair order concerns Oceanex Sanderling, a container/cargo ship owned by Oceanex, which is scheduled to arrive into Halifax Shipyard’s Nova Dock during the second week of October 2013 for a two–week routine maintenance and repair project, which is forecast to require around 90 employees.

This will be followed by the passenger ferry Holiday Island which will require two weeks of general repairs and routine maintenance. The ferry, owned by NFL Northumberland Ferries, is expected to make its call into the Nova Dock in the November timeframe. This project is expected to require approximately 50 employees.

“The excellent reputation of our skilled ship repair specialists at Halifax Shipyard has helped to secure these two contracts for the yard,” said Kevin McCoy, president , Irving Shipbuilding. “These are exactly the type of contracts that will help to keep our skilled shipbuilders and trades people at work as we continue to prepare Halifax Shipyard to build the Royal Canadian Navy’s new combat vessels beginning in 2015. We’re continuing to aggressively bid commercial and repair projects for all of our facilities – we’ll fight hard for each one of them if it will help us maintain one more of our skilled employees here within our workforce.”