The last of nine patrol vessels built by the Halifax Shipyard for the Canadian Coast Guard was officially handed over today. The $194 million contract was completed on time and on budget.

The nine patrol ships will be used on the coasts and the Great Lakes to prevent drug smuggling.

The final vessel, the Captain Goddard, is named after Capt. Nichola Goddard, a 26-year-old female soldier from Antigonish County who was killed in Afghanistan.

Goddard’s mother, Sally, was at today’s ceremony.

“She often said all she was doing was her job and her recognition is really the recognition of all the people who died in Afghanistan, it’s not just her,” said Sally.

With the completion of the patrol vessels, this means the shipyard is ready to move ahead with the first phase of the $25 billion national shipbuilding project which will involve building Arctic patrol vessels.

“The facility is on track support cutting steel Sept. 1 next year,” said company president Kevin McCoy.

He expects the facility to build a minimum of six Arctic patrol vessels.

McCoy says negotiations with Ottawa are 90 per cent complete and the contract to build the next set of ships should be signed in Jan. 2015.