As per the Seaspan CEO the design work for everything the GoC has ordered is largely done and winding down. It’s got nothing to do with how many ships are left to be built to the existing designs.
Due to cost of maintaining the large and highly capable design staff that they have built from scratch for Canada, it will begin to be disbanded in the next year unless there is new design work.
The fact that the welders etc. will still be busy is not the issue or a useful metric in relation to the design staff.
If Canada wants to maintain a sovereign shipbuilding capability it needs both the design staff and the workers to then build those designs. It’s the first half that have been really busy getting us to this point, but now the design work for Seaspan ship classes are winding down.
What’s next for the design staff? If the answer is nothing then I would consider NSS at risk of strategic collapse. Those engineers and naval architects will begin leaving to other countries or be laid off and we will need to start from scratch again in 10,15,20 years.
There needs to be concrete funded design and development work for the sovereign design capabilities in the next year likely to prevent that.
At this point Canada can’t afford to spend 4-6 years discussing a corvette or a JSS etc. the design teams need work now.