BUILDING CANADA'S NAVY

  Irving Shipbuilding is pushing federal officials to announce a firm date to begin construction on Canada’s new fleet of warships, arguing that will help drive the project along. But the company is facing resistance from federal officials concerned about missing a publicly announced start date, as happened with the Arctic patrol ships now under construction, according to documents released to Postmedia.
   Federal officials have continued to say that construction of the Canadian Surface Combatant fleet would begin sometime in the early 2020s but no specific date had been set.

   Three consortiums have submitted bids for the surface combatant program and those are still being evaluated. The project will see 15 warships built by Irving Shipbuilding in Halifax. A winning bid is expected to be selected sometime this year.