National Defence committee  We were very fortunate when we saw the NSPS program unfold in 2010 and 2011, because we in industry were as skeptical as the rest of the country that it could be truly transparent and open and that no decisions would be made at the political level. In my career—and lifetime, actu

National Defence committee  We did the same. A single point of accountability is very important. Actually, within our own shipyard we unfortunately can't build ships with masses of people all making a decision, so we have an SPA, a single point of accountability. From the government, we also find this would

National Defence committee  That's correct. We're a bit more complicated because we have two customers, two main customers, but that would be very helpful. There's acknowledgement from the crown that it would be something it would like to look at. It's not falling on deaf ears; it is something that would he

National Defence committee  The key is that we're training them now. Regardless if it's a joint support ship or an icebreaker, they'll be doing the same work.

National Defence committee  We have a very similar story and we also have a map of where all the money is being spent across the country. Obviously it's migrating more east and west, with a little bit of central work. The central provinces don't see a lot of that because of the manufacturing they do, but it

National Defence committee  We are keenly aware of what is going on. Seaspan is not only a shipbuilder but also a vessel operator. I dare say I probably had lunch with some of the same people that shared their concerns with you about icebreakers on the St. Lawrence and in the Great Lakes. As the non-combat

National Defence committee  Very much so, and this goes back again to what the Coast Guard is talking about with us, literally as we speak, and have been for the last six months, because the icebreaker issue didn't sneak up on us. These vessels that are operating today are good vessels, but they're 30 and

National Defence committee  Well, the good news from a shipbuilding perspective is that if you're working in one of our shops, you're building parts of a vessel almost like building with Lego pieces. To be honest with you, right now we are working on a vessel. In less than about four weeks, the entire vesse

National Defence committee  We actually have a great example of that working right now. We, as the west coast partners with Irving on the east coast and our other partner, Lockheed Martin, were very successful in doing the Halifax-class modification, the FELEX program. On the east coast, it was seven ships,

National Defence committee  You got it.

National Defence committee  It's one of my favourite topics, because we have both the tradesmen's and tradeswomen's side, as well as the engineers and professionals we're bringing into the office. On the trades side, we were always quite bullish in thinking and knowing that we were going to attract all th

National Defence committee  I think there were three questions. I'll see if I can get to them. On the first one, it's interesting that you talk about Hyundai. It is an amazing facility. In previous lives I've actually built ships in Hyundai as well as some of the other Korean shipyards. Also, ironically, t

National Defence committee  We are currently in build contract for the OFSVs. That's why we have definitive dates. It will be 2017 for the first vessel, and the other two should be in 2018. We don't have a definitive build contract on the joint support ships yet, but that should be started sometime in late

National Defence committee  You're looking at, I believe, 2021.

National Defence committee  These will actually be the largest ships ever built in western Canada.