Nova Scotia is hoping its ship has not sailed. The government, the business community and virtually anyone who calls the province home is hoping that political winds will shift to the east and the Irving Shipbuilding Inc. bid for $35 billion in federal government contracts will prevail.
Bids for the shipbuilding contracts, which include roughly $28.5 million for combat vessels and the remainder for Coast Guard and other non-combat vessels, have now closed. Three contenders are in the running. In addition to Irving, there is North Vancouver, B.C.-based Seaspan and an Ontario/Quebec consortium that had entered at the last minute (after the deadline for bids was extended by two weeks).
The stakes are high. According to a study by the Conference Board of Canada, if Irving wins the contract for the combat vessels alone, everybody wins. The Ottawa-based research organization found 11,500 jobs will materialize, Nova Scotia’s real gross domestic product would peak at $897 million in 2020 and the national GDP would see a $1.5 billion increase.
If Irving’s Halifax shipyards and other facilities aren’t successful in any bid, however, the boat will quickly sink, the Conference Board concluded: Nova Scotia’s real GDP is projected to decline by $173 million after 2017, and approximately 2000 jobs will be sunk.
The stakes may be even higher, according to David Zimmerman, a military historian at the University of Victoria. He told the Globe and Mail that the losing bidders are not likely to survive.
Understandably, Irving, the provincial government, and business organizations across the province are pushing hard — and publicly — for a win. As the race heated up, Nova Scotia had announced $20 million in loans so Irving could upgrade its dry dock in Halifax. (Meanwhile, the British Columbia government came forward with a package worth $40 million over 30 years, and Quebec dangled the possibility that contracts for building twin ferries could be awarded without tenders.)
Now, the fight has been taken to the streets. Nova Scotia is running a $100,000 campaign that includes a website (http://shipsstarthere.ca) vigorously encouraging everyone to promote Nova Scotia’s bid. There also are huge roadside billboards for those browsing in the real world. (Although it is unclear why the billboards are plastered across Halifax. We’re already in favour of Irving winning the bid.) Irving has developed a four-page booklet that was distributed across Atlantic Canada, subtly entitled Canada’s Federal Fleet Builder.
On the surface, all this is unnecessary. Earlier this year, federal Public Works Minister Rona Ambrose asked bidders not to lobby the feds because the decision would be based on the merits of the bids. That’s hogwash, according to Nova Scotia Premier Darrell Dexter: “There’s lobbying going on all the time in Ottawa. And anybody who thinks that that’s not happening is living in an alternative universe.”
Irving spent more than a year preparing its proposal, which ultimately comprised 16 banker-style boxes — eight for combat and eight for non-combat. Now, the work is over and the waiting begins. IE
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