The BC Chamber of Commerce welcomed the announcement that Seaspan Shipyards was successful in receiving a contract to build non-combat ships under the Federal Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy (NSPS) contract is a 20 year $8 billion federal program.

“This successful bid is a good example of a partnership between the private sector and government producing jobs and making a very positive contribution to the provincial economy”, said John Winter, President & CEO of the BC Chamber of Commerce. “The work put into this by the Chamber of Commerce Network in both BC & Canada played a large role in it’s success, and I would like to congratu-late the Provincial Government for the leadership they showed towards securing the contract.”

The bid as secured by Seaspan Shipyards in North Vancouver will have an economic impact throughout Metro Vancouver, Vancouver Island & the province as a whole. The benefits will extend to other BC shipyards which will participate with Seaspan Shipyards, and to suppliers of everything from construction to professional services. In addition, the cluster of companies, capital and human resources it will support will act as a continued catalyst for the province’s technology sector. This contract will provide new opportunities for knowledge transfer between our post-secondary institutions and fostering the next generation of marine industry and technologies.

“We anticipate that the positive ripple effects of this contract will benefit businesses across multiple sectors and create jobs on a very large scale.” added Winter. “To put this into context, the total benefit of this contract to the BC economy will outweigh the 2010 winter Olympics by a factor of ten.”