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« on: March 30, 2014, 11:54:51 AM »
The current situation on the St.Lawrence River and Gulf is a little exceptional since there is more ice this year than there has been for several years. In any event, Canada's largest icebreaker, Louis S. St-Laurent has not been used very much this winter, due to government funding limitations. It may come out after March 31 when the new financial year starts.
Similarly on the Great Lakes, this has been an exceptional year for ice,with some of the lakes frozen over completely for the first time in decades. One of the Canadian icebreakers on the Lakes has had main engine problems, and as a result two icebreakers from the River/Gulf have been sent to the Lakes to open up.
Therefore there is a temporary shortage of icebreaking capacity.
Canada's two largest icebreakers, St-Laurent and Terry Fox are too big to fit in the St.Lawrence Seaway locks,so they cannot help in the Lakes, but they could help in the Gulf and River.
All of Canada's icebreakers are old and need to be replaced. Government inaction is to blame for this situation, but that delay is the result of budget cuts during the recent recession, which had many other benefits to the Canadian economy.
Icebreaking ability for a Polar class ship is only a small part of the requirements for the ship. It must also conduct a lot of scientific and survey work, and establish Canada's sovereignty in the Arctic. It therefore must have very large accommodations, self-sufficeint helicopter capability, cargo carrying ability (to supply scientific and military outposts) and huge fuel capacity to survive one or two years in the ice.
Its mission cannot easily be compared to other icebreakers in the world.
As to why the ship should cost so much , there are two reasons. First is that we have no shipbuilding capability in Canada for ships of this size or complexity. Both Seaspan in Vancouver, and Halifax Shipyard are being rebuilt from the ground up with all new facilities so that they can build warships and other government vessels. There will also be large costs associated with training workers, and buying many components from overseas suppliers.
It is certainly debatable whether Canada should be in the shipbuilding business at all, in view of the high costs. The argument for shipbuilding is that once a shipbuilding industry is re-developed, Canada should be able to build its own ships, to its own unique requirements, without relying on other nations.
The argument against is that most components come from abroad anyway and there are mature shipbuilding capabilities elsewhere, which can deliver on time, on budget and would save tax payers' dollars for other needed uses.
The present government is eager to sign free trade agreements with other countries such as Norway, South Korea and in the E-U and South America. Many of these countries can build icebreakers for a fraction of the Canadian cost, even if their huge subsidies are taken into account.
However it is Canada's aim, I believe, to create skilled jobs in Canada no matter the cost.