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Defence Minister Harjit Sajjanand Procurement Minister Carla Qualtrough will take part in a steel cuttingceremony for the first of two Joint Support Ships. That is happening on Friday at Seaspan’s Vancouver Shipyards.

Taxpayers will have to spend $1.1 billion extra on new navy supply ships, the Liberal government recently acknowledged.

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Previously the cost of building the two Joint Support Ships at Seaspan shipyards had been pegged at $2.3 billion.

But the government ordered a review of that cost figure and in an email to Postmedia, Qualtrough’s office confirmed the cost for the Joint Support Ships 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. 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.

“The build period has changed quite dramatically,” Finn acknowledged.

At one point, the first ship was supposed to arrive in 2012. That has been changed a number of times with the government later hoping for a 2018 delivery and then a 2019 arrival for the first vessel.

The Department of National Defence is now hoping for the delivery of the first ship in 2022 or 2023.