THUNDER BAY — Ontario Shipyards believes the addition of Algoma Steel to a consortium hoping to build new naval vessels provides an important boost for the lobbying effort.
Ontario Shipyards, which owns the shipyard in Thunder Bay, is one of five founding members of Team Vigilance, which was established in 2023 to submit an unsolicited proposal for constructing the next-generation replacement for the Royal Canadian Navy’s 12 Kingston-class maritime coastal defence vessels.
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"Subsequently, we've built out almost 30 additional companies which have joined our group as our preferred suppliers, all Canadian companies, the latest one being Algoma Steel," said Ted Kirkpatrick, director of business development and government relations for Ontario Shipyards.
"It's huge to have Algoma on board. It's been a long time since we've built Royal Canadian Navy vessels with Canadian steel.... It's just a great way to showcase how we can build our own sovereign defence capability, not just build ships and put them in the water, but all the way through the supply chain."
Kirkpatrick told Newswatch the government has not issued a request for proposals yet, but it is committed to to the Continental Defence Corvette program as part of the National Shipbuilding Strategy.
He said although the Ontario Shipyards facility in Port Weller would be the major production site for the new vessels, Thunder Bay would benefit as well.
"Just as we had worked on a plan to fabricate modules and tertiary steel components out of Thunder Bay for other shipyards, we would look to a similar model for our own shipbuilding. I've said this all along, that where we have three facilities across Ontario, we look to leverage the capabilities of all three to support whatever we're doing, wherever the final assembly point is."
Kirkpatrick told Canadian Defence Review in an interview published last year his company's existing infrastructure would allow it to build several of the RCN's proposed Vigilance-class vessels at the same time, without any significant upgrades.
“Ontario has the largest underutilized shipbuilding capacity in Canada,” he said. “The Vigilance Project would enable us to bring untapped capacity online and bring shipbuilding back to Ontario.”
The Thunder Bay facility has largely been idled and has operated with only a skeleton staff since last year, although it did get the job of repairing a damaged lake carrier this past winter.
In March, it came to light that Ontario Shipyards was no longer involved in a partnership with a BC shipyard to build a heavy Polar icebreaker for the Canadian Coast Guard.
Premier Doug Ford announced a $200-million investment in Ontario's shipbuilding industry in February of this year.
