OTTAWA—The federal government has quietly earmarked almost $1 billion more to keep Canada’s fleet of four submarines operational over the next seven years, the Star has learned.

With maintenance costs running higher than expected, the federal government has set aside additional funding to ensure the subs can remain in service.

The support contract to maintain the Victoria-class submarines through to 2023 has been boosted to $2.6 billion, up from $1.7 billion, a spokesperson with Public Services and Procurement Canada confirmed.

That’s because the previous amount, set in 2008, provided “inadequate” funding to cover the expected bills now that the extended maintenance work has begun on the submarines.

“This increase is a result of maintenance costs being higher than originally estimated over the 15-year contract. Initial estimates were premature, and Canada now has the data from recent submarine in-service support activity to better predict future work requirements,” Nicolas Boucher said in an email.

He said the revised allowance will be enough to ensure maintenance of the navy’s four submarines until 2023.

The higher funding ceiling was approved on May 19.

The rising repair bills are sure to raise fresh questions about the subs — already two decades old — which have struggled with maintenance woes and costly upkeep that have hampered their time in service.

“There’s a real question as to how long we can continue to maintain the submarines we have,” said NDP MP and defence critic Randall Garrison, who represents the B.C. riding of Esquimalt-Saanich-Sooke, home to the navy’s Pacific fleet.

“If they are going to cost an inordinate amount to maintain, we may have to start looking at replacing them,” said Garrison, whose party supports having submarines as part of the navy.

The current subs were bought used for $750 million more than a decade ago from Britain, which had mothballed the boats. Problems were evident from the start. During its maiden voyage to Canada, HMCS Chicoutimi suffered a devastating fire that killed an officer onboard.

“Did we buy lemons? I think it’s obvious the cost of what looked like a cheap and good deal were much higher ... Was it the right decision? I don’t think there’s much point in us revisiting that,” Garrison said.

Today, only Halifax-based HMCS Windsor is operational. HMCS Corner Brook is undergoing heavy maintenance, which is expected to take until 2018. This will include repairs to damage suffered when it ran into the sea floor in 2011.

Faulty welds will keep HMCS Chicoutimi and Victoria, both based in Esquimalt, out of operation for the foreseeable future. Repair work on Chicoutimi is being done now under warranty by Babcock Canada, the company that holds the in-service support contract.

Repairs on Victoria will start this year, but there is no timeline for when that sub will be ready for operations.

Despite the maintenance challenges, navy commanders have been unshaken in their support of the sub fleet.

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“I think as long as Canada needs a navy, it needs submarines,” Rear Admiral John Newton, commander of Maritime Forces Atlantic, told the Star during a recent interview onboard HMCS Windsor.

“The most important role of a submarine is it deters other people from coming into the waters you claim as your own,” Newton said. Submarines are “phenomenal” at covert surveillance and intelligence gathering, he said.

“As long as they know we have these diesel boats operating in our waters or our ocean areas of interest, they have to approach us with a great deal of caution and that’s the idea,” Newton said.

“The only way to own that ocean space is to put a submarine in it,” he said.

That view is reinforced by the Royal Canadian Navy’s own vision of its future, which makes the case for keeping subs as one of its capabilities.

“They are the RCN’s ultimate war-fighting capability, a platform through which Canada can control a substantial ocean space or deny it to others,” says the document, titled “Leadmark 2050: Canada in a New Maritime World.”

Subs such as Canada’s fleet of Victoria-class boats have “unrivalled stealth, persistence and lethality” and “excel” in intelligence gathering, the document states.

And it says that subs can complete missions “without being visible to other nations or the Canadian people — an invaluable asset when discretion in military action is needed.”

Canada’s navy is already looking ahead to the next generation of submarines. The document notes that plans to extend the life of the Victoria-class subs into mid-2030 are being examined “as a bridge toward a new submarine capability.”

“Submarines are likely to remain the dominant naval platform for the foreseeable future,” the vision document states.

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