Ontario shipyard accuses feds of stacking the deck for Quebec builder

OTTAWA – An Ontario shipyard is accusing the federal government of trying to unfairly award Quebec’s Chantier Davie shipyard potentially billions of dollars in work without a competition.

The allegation is contained in a complaint from Hamilton-based Heddle Marine to the Canadian International Trade Tribunal over the government’s search for a third shipyard to add to its multibillion-dollar shipbuilding strategy.

The winning yard, which will join Halifax’s Irving Shipbuilding and Seaspan Marine in Vancouver in the massive naval procurement process, will be tasked with building six new icebreakers for the Canadian Coast Guard.

However, Heddle alleges in its complaint that many of the requirements the government says shipyards must meet to qualify for consideration are not legitimate or reasonable — and will disqualify virtually every yard but Davie.

Heddle, which in recent years purchased the Thunder Bay shipyards and the Port Weller dry docks, is asking the tribunal to order the removal of the requirements or the launch of a new search process.

The federal procurement department has not responded to questions posed to it Friday. Davie declined to comment.

Davie, which received several federal contracts without a competition in recent years and whose surrounding area is likely to be hotly contested in the fall federal election, has previously expressed confidence it will become the third yard.

One of the requirements flagged by Heddle, which has previously focused on the repair and maintenance of ships, is that qualifying shipyards must have a contract now or recent experience in building a ship weighing more than 1,000 tonnes.

Source:  https://bit.ly/2SzgqRp