Canada Orders Six Polar Icebreakers From Davie in C$11.3bn Deal

Canada has unveiled the biggest shipbuilding contract in Quebec's history, committing C$11.3bn ($8.2bn) to six new Canadian Coast Guard icebreakers at Chantier Davie in Levis.

Prime minister Mark Carney said the programme would be carried out on a scale that has not been seen in generations, creating close to 5,000 jobs during construction and contributing around C$650m a year to Canadian GDP.

The six Polar Class 3 ships will replace ageing heavy and medium icebreakers deployed in Atlantic Canada, the St Lawrence, the Great Lakes and the Arctic. Construction is scheduled to start in 2027, with the first vessel due five years later and the full series in service by 2038.

Their working brief is broader than ice transit. The ships will cut and maintain channels for commercial navigation, support search and rescue and environmental response, carry out northern resupply and vessel traffic services, and free vessels that become beset in ice.

"These six state-of-the-art icebreakers will keep the trade routes that carry Canadian goods to the world accessible and secure," Carney said. "Built in Levis by Canadian workers, they are a lasting investment in a stronger, more self-reliant Canada."

Under Ottawa's Buy Canadian policy, the vessels will use Canadian steel and other domestic materials, with the government framing the order as much around industrial policy and Arctic sovereignty as fleet renewal. The award lands while Canada is locked in a trade dispute with the United States and while activity in the Arctic continues to build.

The contract is the latest sign of a renewed determination to rebuild a shipbuilding industry hollowed out by decades of stop-start procurement. Davie has positioned itself at the centre of that revival, having taken more than C$7.74bn in contracts since 2012 under the National Shipbuilding Strategy.

The yard acquired Helsinki Shipyard in 2023, bringing Finnish icebreaker expertise into the Canadian group. That capability is already being tapped for Polar Max, the C$3.25bn heavy icebreaker awarded to Davie in 2025 and due for delivery in 2030; work has begun on the hull in Finland, and it will be transferred to Davie for outfitting and commissioning. The group is also supporting the US Arctic Security Cutter programme through its Davie Defense arm in Texas.

On the west coast, Seaspan's Vancouver Shipyards was awarded a C$3.15bn contract last year for a second polar icebreaker, and is lined up to build as many as 16 multi-purpose icebreakers under a programme budgeted at C$14.2bn. Irving Shipbuilding in Halifax remains the core combat-vessel yard.

The scale of the Canadian commitment stands in contrast to the American programme, where heavy icebreaker delivery has slipped towards 2033 and the procurement route has drawn scrutiny. Finland, meanwhile, has kept its own yards busy with state icebreaker orders, and traffic through the port of Quebec depends on winter channels the new ships are meant to keep open.