Canadian owned Irving Shipbuilding rejects the recent outrageous comments made by Davie’s conglomerate CEO Alex Vicefield from his headquarters in Monaco.   The National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy (NSPS) is widely recognized as a robust, open, and fair procurement strategy that is working for Canada.

The NSPS process included extensive evaluations of shipyard capabilities and Irving Shipbuilding and Seaspan were selected to build ships for Canada. The deadline for the original NSPS competition in 2011 was extended at Davie’s request - and they lost.  Despite this, and without credibility, Davie continues to attempt to disrupt a well-run, open and transparent process. 

Particularly misleading are Davie’s remarks about “exorbitant prices” and baseless claims that they can build ships faster and cheaper than the NSPS yards who have collectively invested over one half billion dollars to modernize to the world’s best standards.  As an example, Irving Shipbuilding understands that Davie’s recent sole source award of an interim refueling ship conversion without competition was double the cost, double the schedule, and with less capability than our own proposal.      

Vicefield is wrong regarding contract incentives for the ships we are building.  Irving Shipbuilding is incentivized to reduce costs.  If costs go up, our profit goes down.  All cost estimates have been vetted and accepted by independent third parties.  It appears that Vicefield has little experience in complex military shipbuilding programs and his comments are uninformed. 
 
In response to Vicefield’s comments about our progress to date since being selected as Canada’s combatant ship builder in October 2011:

• we finished the ships then under construction for Canada
• we then demolished our old shipyard
• we built the most modern shipyard in North America
• we hired and trained almost 600 new employees
• and we finished the design of the Arctic Offshore Patrol ships 

All of this was done to ensure we are building Canada’s future fleet at the most efficient cost.  Construction of the first Arctic Patrol ship started exactly on-time in September 2015.  A lot has happened.

Irving Shipbuilding, a proudly Canadian owned and operated company, is revitalizing the shipbuilding industry in Canada.  We have awarded Canadian companies almost one billion dollars in contracts to date with real economic impact across Canada.  

The Canadian Government was clear last week that they are fully committed to the National Shipbuilding Strategy – a strategy that is working for Canada!

CONTACT:
Mary Keith
Vice President Communications  
(506) 650-8209