Lots of valid points..
But Irving has been building AOPS for 10yrs in Halifax, surely the adding of 4-600 jobs in the sub pens can’t have them this worried. Maybe our subs should be based in St John’s or perhaps Saint John so as to not further strain Irving and its ability to meet existing timelines?
Can Halifax, the city and Halifax the harbour handle another 6 subs, the maintenance facility, all the crew/workers? What if we do get 16-20 ‘Minifaxs’? Can the city/harbour accommodate another 8-10 ships/crew/maintenance workers/support staff?
Maybe the 8-10 ‘Minifaxs’ should be based in St John’s or Saint John as well? Start with the subs and their maintenance facility and add the Minifaxs as well.
As you may be aware, Halifax is already Canada's Atlantic Fleet base. It currently supports the Halifax Class, AOPV's, Subs, visiting NATO warships, AOR's, Coast Guard vessels, FMF, Bedford mag, naval schools, dockyards, Sea Training, MARLANT headquarters, and thousands of military and civilian personnel. The idea that six additional submarines would somehow overwhelm the harbour is laughable. Halifax handled far larger naval traffic during both world wars and remains one of the largest and most capable natural harbours in the world.
I assume your joking, as for moving submarines to Saint John or St. John's, that sounds great on paper until you realize you would need to build virtually everything from scratch. New jetties. New maintenance facilities. New ammunition infrastructure. New training facilities. New security systems. New housing. New support contracts. New supply chains. New emergency response capability. Billions of dollars spent recreating capabilities Halifax already possesses. I sincerely doubt this will happen in any meaningful way.
The labour argument is equally weak. Irving isn't worried about the harbour running out of water. They're worried about losing skilled workers. Those are two completely different issues. If a future submarine maintenance contractor can attract welders, electricians, pipefitters, planners, and engineers away from Irving, that's called competition. It happens in every industry. The solution isn't to scatter naval assets around Atlantic Canada because one company doesn't like competing for labour.
If Canada eventually fields the CDC, the question isn't whether Halifax Harbour can physically fit them. It can. The question is whether the Navy, dockyard, maintenance organizations, and support infrastructure expand accordingly. Its activately being looked at, with extras jettys, facilities being planned overtime. Every major navy in the world grows infrastructure alongside fleets. They don't start building duplicate naval bases hundreds of kilometres away because someone is nervous about hiring.
The harbour isn't the problem. The workforce isn't the problem. The real issue is that some people seem to think Canada's naval strategy should be dictated by the hiring concerns of a single shipyard.
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