Wait for Work at Marystown Shipyard Could Soon Be Over

The industry and political leaders in the area will say the community’s shipbuilding future is built on more than just the federal government’s plan to construct new Joint Supply Ships (JSS) for the Canadian Navy, according to theWesternStar.com. In the meantime, a duo of companies are in the process of putting together plans to “develop project implementation and in-service support proposals” for the JSS project. ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems Canada Inc. and SNC-Lavalin ProFac Inc. won that contract following a bidding process. Peter Kiewit and Sons Ltd. in Marystown is part of a pre-qualified consortium for JSS. It is believed the worth of such a contract to the Marystown Shipyard would be in the neighborhood of $800 to $900 million. Meanwhile, another $1.5 billion federal contract for maintenance that had been eyed in the past by the shipbuilding forces on the Burin Peninsula looks to be on the verge of going to a yard in Esquimalt, British Columbia. A previous bid from an Irving Shipbuilding appeared to put that contract in doubt.In November 2007 it even looked like the contract would be yanked away from the West Coast under the weight of lobbying pressure. According to Malcolm Barker, Victoria Shipyards general manager, that pressure came from East Coast politicians, failed bidders and lobbyists. It is expected the submarine contract will create up to 150 jobs.