Davie gets a C$13.6 million Canadian Coast Guard contract

CCGS Earl Grey

MARCH 11, 2015 — The Government of Canada has awarded a Canadian $13.6 million contract to Chantier Davie Canada Inc., Lévis, Quebec, for Vessel Life Extension and refit work for the Canadian Coast Guard Ship (CCGS) Earl Grey.

The CCGS Earl Grey celebrated its 30th year of service earlier this year, on February 8. Renewing the Coast Guard Fleet is part of the Government of Canada’s National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy, and the contract is being awarded as part of a C$360 million investment that will allow extending the life of sixteen Coast Guard vessels and completing mid-life modernizations on two existing hovercraft over the next 10 years. It is the third contract involving Chantier Davie awarded by the Canadian Coast Guard in less than a year. The first two were awarded to the partnership formed by Babcock and Chantier Davie: a C$6.5 million contract for refit work on the CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent was announced in April 2014 and a C$4.5 million contract for refit and Vessel Life Extension work on Canadian Coast Guard ship CCGS Des Groseilliers was announced in October 2014.

Work on the Earl Grey is scheduled to begin in mid-March 2015 and to be completed by January 2016.

The VLE contract will include extensive repairs and upgrades throughout the vessel, such as repairs to the hull, upgrades to the main engine, as well as to the auxiliary generator controls and electronic switchboard and equipment.

The vessel’s 9-month life extension program will take place in Davie’s secondary dry dock, the Lorne dock.

Alan Bowen, Davie’s CEO, commented, “This contract represents the third Coast Guard vessel refit program in the past 12 months as well as the first time the Lorne dry dock, our smaller dry dock, has been used since the Royal Canadian Navy frigate construction programs. We look forward to developing further programs with the Government of Canada which help to grow our workforce and sustain Davie’s crucial role in the local economy, while simultaneously providing an affordable and timely service to the federal fleet.”

Trivia note: The Earl Grey for whom the CCGS Earl Grey is named, is not the one the tea is named after. The ship is named for Albert Henry George Grey, 4th Earl Grey, who served as Governor General of Canada from 1904 to 1911. His legacy includes the Grey Cup, awarded for winning the Canadian Football League Championship. The tea? That’s named for a different, unrelated, Earl Grey who was Prime Minister of the U.K. from 1830-1834.