Conference Board Of Canada News

Irving Shipbuilding, Canada’s National Shipbuilder, has awarded an $8.9 million contract to ABCO Industries Limited (ABCO) for the design and construction of 12 metre landing craft for the Royal Canadian Navy’s Harry DeWolf-class Arctic and Offshore Patrol Ships (AOPS). Halifax Shipyard is constructing up to six AOPS as part of the Government of Canada’s National Shipbuilding Strategy (NSS). Each AOPS will have one custom designed 12m landing craft onboard. The landing craft will be used by Royal Canadian Navy to deploy vehicles, such as all-terrain vehicles, snowmobiles or trucks, from the ship’s vehicle bay. ABCO, based in Lunenburg…

The government's assistance package, revealed in March 2012, includes the forgivable loan worth up to $260 million (but Irving will have to repay it if it doesn't reach those job targets) and a repayable loan of $44 million for human resources, technological, and industrial development, reports CBC News. The Department of Economic Development said the 4,000 jobs will be created over the 29-year life of the agreement, while the NDP government defends the arrangement on the basis the shipbuilding work will generate $2.8 billion in tax revenue for the province. In 2012, a Conference Board of Canada study found that Nova Scotia could benefit from an average of 8,400 indirect jobs between 2012 and 2030, peaking at 11,500 jobs during the program’s busiest years.

A year after Irving Shipbuilding Inc.’s successful bid to build $25B worth of combat vessels for the Royal Canadian Navy and ships for the Canadian Coast Guard, the largest procurement contract ever awarded in Canada, a positive economic buzz continues to grow across the province and throughout the Atlantic region. It’s an optimism not generated by any other project in many years. The multi-billion dollar package provided through the National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy (NSPS)…

Economic growth in Nova Scotia, currently running at 1.6 percent for 2011, looks promising over the next two years, according to the Provincial Monitor report released today by BMO Economics. "We expect growth to accelerate to a 2.5 percent clip by 2013, when the positive impact of the recently announced Federal shipbuilding contract begins to take root," said Robert Kavcic, Economist, BMO Capital Markets. The contract landed by Irving Shipbuilding to build combat ships for the Royal Canadian Navy is worth an estimated $25 billion through 2030. The Conference Board of Canada estimates that about 8,000 new jobs - more than 1 per cent of total employment in the province - will be sustained over that period, and that real GDP will see a boost of about $800 million per year on average.