The designation of the Davie shipyard in the national shipbuilding strategy should be concluded by “by the end of the year”, announced the federal Minister of Health and Member of Parliament for Quebec, Jean-Yves Duclos. This qualification, hoped for by the 850 workers and some 1,000 Quebec suppliers of Davie, would mean, according to many, the “rebirth” of the unloved shipyard.
Negotiated since 2019, this qualification would make the Lévis company eligible for lucrative federal contracts under the National Shipbuilding Strategy (SCNC). At stake: the construction of the “biggest, most complex boats [et] the most modern ever built in Canada”, according to Mr. Duclos, seven icebreakers, including a polar one, and two ferries.
This contract represents a federal windfall capable of trickling down to Quebec more than 21 billion dollars in economic spinoffs, according to a recent report by the firm Deloitte, and creating more than 4,500 “very well-paid” jobs. For Davie, it is also the assurance of a long-term future and the hope of closing the chapter of setbacks and bankruptcies that has long undermined its reputation.
The designation seems acquired at the shipyard, since it is the “only one to have passed the prequalification stage”, recalled Jean-Yves Duclos. The federal minister underlined his happiness at having left Vancouver and the negotiations on health transfers to attend, in Quebec City, the first annual meeting of the shipbuilding supply chain.
Two shipyards are currently part of the national strategy: that of Seaspan, in Vancouver, and that of Irving, in Halifax. La Davie, left behind in the plans of previous Conservative governments, now sees light at the end of the tunnel.
To obtain the award of federal contracts, the Lévis shipyard, inaugurated in 1829, will have to undergo an imposing makeover. The bill for its modernization amounts, according to Denis Boucher, vice-president of public affairs of Davie, at the very least to 500 million dollars.
This upgrade is necessary so as not to “repeat the mistakes of the past”, i.e. the time when badly drawn up contracts “put the Davie shipyard in more trouble instead of improving its lot”.
10 years ago, Davie was struggling to recover from a debacle that had left the company bloodless. “The site was closed, it was technically bankrupt. I think there were just 20 employees left, recalls Pierre Drapeau, vice-president of the Chantier Davie Canada Suppliers Association. There are suppliers who had lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in this. Today, they are in the room: it proves how solid the confidence is now. »
The Quebec government also has great ambitions for the Davie, whose production capacity exceeds the Vancouver and Halifax shipyards combined.
“Naval can be, for the greater region of Quebec and Lévis, what aerospace is for the region of Montreal, believes the new Minister of Education and Member of Parliament for Lévis, Bernard Drainville. That’s thousands of well-paying jobs to really put us on the map. »
In front of the audience of business people gathered at the Quebec City Convention Center, Mr. Drainville promised that the CAQ government will be there. “The designation of the site will be accompanied by significant, very significant investments on the part of the Government of Quebec,” he said during his speech, before specifying, at the end of his speech, that this contribution is will be held to the “limits of reasonableness. »
The shipbuilding industry, believes Mr. Drainville, has the potential to join aerospace, video games and aluminum to the pantheon of leading industries in Quebec. “The future is so promising”, dreams the new elected representative of Lévis, who however thinks that the shipyard must restore “the slightly negative perception” inherited from the years when the public authorities invested millions of dollars to keep the Davie afloat. — and often contemplate its shipwreck.