Feds reviewing budgets and schedules for new resupply ships, icebreaker
OTTAWA — Canada’s multibillion-dollar plan to buy new warships for the navy isn’t the only federal shipbuilding project sailing in uncharted waters.
Federal officials are reviewing the budgets and construction schedules of the Canadian Coast Guard’s new polar icebreaker and the navy’s two new resupply vessels, all of which are to be built in Vancouver.
The review follows a delay in the construction of three new offshore fisheries science ships for the coast guard at the same shipyard, which must be finished before the other vessels can move ahead.
The first of the three science vessels was to be delivered by the end of this year, but that has now been pushed to next year. The last of the three won’t be ready until 2019.