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Canada’s shipbuilding industry says it is concerned over recent reports in the Citizen that the Canadian government may lease foreign built tugboats rather than build replacement tugs for the Royal Canadian Navy at home.

In mid-January the Citizen carried an article noting that the federal government had confirmed that some of the smaller ships that could be supplied in the future to the Canadian Forces don’t have to be built in Canada.

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The move appears to undercut the National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy, which is designed to acquire new ships to replace Canada’s naval and coast guard fleets while creating jobs at home.

In a response to companies, Public Services and Procurement Canada confirmed that the tugs and fireboats that might be provided to the Department of National Defence in the future don’t have to be built in Canada.

Under the National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy or NSPS, brought in by the Conservative government, small Canadian shipyards were supposed to receive work constructing such support ships. That was seen by the government as ensuring contracts were spread around the domestic industry, since the two large yards, Irving on the east coast and Seaspan on the west coast, were to receive the lion’s share of the billions of dollars in projects.