B.C.’s ship repair sector, with its well-paying jobs, has the potential to help the province’s economy recover from the pandemic, NDP candidates said from Point Hope Maritime on Wednesday.
Murray Rankin, who is running in the Oak Bay-Gordon Head riding, pointed to plans for a $90-million graving dock at Point Hope on Harbour Road. “Our shipyards like Point Hope need support to grow and to expand. They need a strong partner in the provincial government.”
Ian Maxwell’s Ralmax Group of Companies, including Point Hope, employs more than 450 unionized workers.
The company estimates the graving dock would create approximately 200 new jobs. Government approvals have been given and Ralmax is working to line up financing and business partners for the graving dock, said Sage Berryman, company chief executive.
Rankin said that a re-elected NDP government would “work with the federal government and with shipyards to make strategic investments in infrastructure that will allow us to compete and to win contracts.”
Party leader John Horgan has said an NDP goverment would invest in a long-term shipbuilding strategy and advocate for a planned polar icebreaker to be constructed on the West Coast.
Rankin said the province would work with shipyards to bring in more repair, maintenance and refit work, all providing high-skilled and high-paying jobs, he said.
“We are going to work to strengthen supply chains by investing in the capacity of companies that’ll supply B.C. shipyards, and we will advance low-carbon technologies, helping B.C. become a hub of green, low-carbon marine vessels.”
Opportunities exist if B.C. has modern, competitive shipyards, said Rob Fleming, the NDP candidate in Victoria-Swan Lake. “Those are the kinds of things that we want to invest in so that we have a strong recovery, good jobs in our community.
Shipyards in B.C., Quebec and Nova Scotia are carrying out billions of dollars worth of ship construction projects to renew Canadian Coast Guard and the nation’s naval fleet.
Point Hope focuses on ship repair and refits.
B.C. Ferries and the federal government are major customers at Point Hope, Berryman said. Their vessels are legally required to go through refits on a regular basis.
Ship repair work is important to Ralmax “because of the longevity of it,” Berryman said.
“It’s not as sexy as the shipbuilding, but it is there permanently. Everybody is always going to need to repair their vessels.”
