Ottawa could buy two converted civilian vessels from a Quebec shipyard to serve as support ships for the Royal Canadian Navy for a fraction of the cost of building brand new ones, according to Parliament’s budget watchdog.
In a new report released Tuesday, parliamentary budget officer Yves Giroux estimates the price of buying the two converted container ships from Chantier Davie would be around $1.4 billion.
That compares to around $4.1 billion to build two brand-new joint support ships, the first of which is already under construction in Vancouver and slated for delivery in 2023.
The findings follow years of heavy lobbying from Davie, which has been leasing one of the two converted civilian vessels to the Navy since 2018 and wants Ottawa to move ahead with the second. The first is known as MV Asterix and the second as MV Obelix.
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