The Quebec government will inject $519.2 million into the Davie Shipyard, whose integration into the federal naval strategy was confirmed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Tuesday.
Quebec and Chantier Davie Canada will jointly invest nearly $840 million to modernize the shipyard’s shipbuilding facilities to meet new demand.
“We are talking about a major upgrade, which will make the shipyard more competitive internationally and which will create wealth and paying jobs in Quebec,” said Premier François Legault, who made the announcement. announcement alongside his federal counterpart, several ministers, the mayors of Quebec and Lévis, and a few hundred employees gathered in a hangar of the oldest shipyard in Canada, located in Lévis.
Davie, which becomes the third shipyard to be integrated into the federal naval strategy, will notably be called upon to build seven icebreakers, including a polar one, for the Canadian Coast Guard. They will be “our largest and most powerful icebreakers in the country,” said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The price of the contracts remains to be specified at the end of future negotiations.
More than 1,800 jobs should be created, in addition to employing 1,100 Quebec suppliers.
Federal Minister Jean-Yves Duclos welcomed this announcement. He considered it “unfair and inconceivable” that Davie had been excluded from the National Shipbuilding Strategy under the leadership of Stephen Harper in 2010. The yard was in a precarious situation at the time.
“Davie is the largest shipyard in the country, […] Davie plays a considerable role in the economic and technological ecosystem of the Quebec City region,” underlined Mr. Duclos during his speech.
According to him, the shipyard will become after this announcement “a pole comparable to that of aeronautics in Montreal or the automobile industry in Ontario”.
“The benefits of these contracts will be felt in several regions, and that is why we have invested so much in this project,” also argued Mr. Legault on Tuesday.
Called to comment on the integration of the Davie shipyard into the federal naval strategy during an announcement on another subject on Monday, the minister responsible for Chaudière-Appalaches, Bernard Drainville, spoke of a “turning point” for the economy of Lévis and the greater Capitale-Nationale and Chaudière-Appalaches regions.
– With the collaboration of Stéphanie Martin