OTTAWA - Just months out of power, the opposition Conservatives are pushing the governing Liberals to speed up the construction of urgently needed Navy and coast guard ships.

The charge is being led by former Conservative cabinet minister Steven Blaney who just happens to have a major shipyard in his riding of Levis, Que., that, he says, has excess shipbuilding capacity that ought to be tapped by the federal government.

Blaney and other MPs on a key House of Commons committee that oversees government operations got an update Thursday on the six-year-old multi-billion dollar national shipbuilding strategy that is still a year away - at least -- from producing its first new coast guard ship, and three years away -- at least -- from its first Navy ship.

"I hear more talks, more costs, more bureaucrats -- but not more ships," Blaney said at a recent committee meeting.

One project, to build new science vessels for the coast guard, is already 13 weeks behind on a 93-week construction schedule.

Some Liberals appear to be sensitive to Blaney's complaints.

Liberal MP Francis Drouin acknowledged the gridlock can be partly blamed on the battle between the "customization culture" of Navy admirals and the "buy off-the-shelf culture" of the land-locked accountants and bureaucrats who actually sign off on plans to buy stuff for our Armed Forces.

As a result, when Canada wanted to start building ships after not doing so for more than 30 years, one of the big challenges was re-tooling Canadian shipyards, re-fitting their facilities and upgrading their workforces -- trying to apply off-the-shelf materials and methods as much as possible while building in some of the custom requirements unique to Canada's requirements.

That extra complexity has already resulted in some delays and in millions more being spent on engineering studies and consultants.

Three Canadian shipyards -- Irving in Halifax, Davie in Levis, Que., and Seaspan in North Vancouver -- qualified to bid on the first wave of shipbuilding contracts. The Irving yard in Halifax won the contract to build new Navy ships, while Seaspan won the work for the coast guard ships and one Navy ship. Davie was shut out.

But now Davie has some excess capacity and some partly built ships it hopes it can sell, at a discount, to the coast guard.

"They should consider the non-solicited proposals from (Davie). We have over-capacity," Blaney said, noting that it would not affect the contracts going to the yards in Vancouver or in Halifax. "But we have an emergency. We need to increase the shipbuilding capacity."

A study done for Transport Canada and tabled in the House of Commons in April warned that the coast guard fleet in particular "urgently requires renewal."

The National Shipbuilding Strategy

In 2010, the government of Stephen Harper started the national shipbuilding strategy to replenish the fleets of both the Royal Canadian Navy and the Canadian Coast Guard. Two shipyards won the bids to build those ships.

At the Halifax shipyard:

Navy Arctic Patrol Ships - Six to be built at at a cost of about $2.3 billion. First vessel expected to be delivered by 2018.

Navy Surface Combatants - Up to 15 new ships which will replace our aging destroyers and frigates. Will cost billions but the budget is under review. Won't even start building these until 2021.

At the North Vancouver shipyard:

Coast Guard Offshore Fisheries Science Vessels - Three to be built at a cost of $466 million. First vessel to be delivered in 2017.

Coast Guard Offshore Oceanographic Science Vessel - One of these to be built. Budget under review. To be delivered 2018 or later.

Navy Joint Support Ships - Two of these to be built. Budget under review. First ship to be delivered in 2020.

Coast Guard Polar Icebreaker - One of these to be built. Budget under review. Expecting delivery by 2021.