OTTAWA — An Ontario shipyard is accusing the federal government of trying to unfairly award Quebec’s Davie Shipbuilding potentially billions of dollars worth of work without a competition.

The allegation is contained in a complaint filed by Hamilton-based Heddle Marine to the Canadian International Trade Tribunal this week.

Last month, the government asked interested candidates to apply to be the third shipyard in its national shipbuilding strategy.

That third shipyard is to be tasked with building six new icebreakers for the Canadian Coast Guard.

However, Heddle says in order to qualify, Ottawa has imposed a number of unreasonable and illegitimate conditions that will disqualify virtually every yard except Davie.

Davie has been awarded several federal contracts without a competition in recent years and is located in an area of the country many expect to be hotly contested in the coming federal election.

The Canadian Press