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Taxpayers will have to spend $1.1 billion extra on new navy supply ships that are going to be built starting this summer, the Liberal government now acknowledges.

Previously the cost of building the two ships at Seaspan shipyards in Vancouver, BC had been pegged at $2.3 billion.

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But the government ordered a review of that cost figure and in an email to Postmedia, Procurement Minister Carla Qualtrough’s office now confirms the cost for the Joint Support Ships, or JSS, is set at $3.4 billion.

Pat Finn, the head of procurement at the Department of National Defence, said the new price tag came as the government decided to do an additional analysis of the project and include other items it had not previously included.

In some cases equipment for the ship has been purchased so there are better costs available on those items, Finn said in an interview Monday. Also taken into account was new infrastructure and the delays with the program, which, in turn, drove up the price as the cost of material increased over the years.