The First Steel Will Be Canadian

We'll move fast. The first steel, Canadian steel, the first steel will be cut next fall. The first ship will be delivered 5 years later.

And the first full fleet and the full fleet will be in service 5 years. The steel he tariffed at 50% just got a 10-year order. Today, we're announcing the largest ship building initiative in Quebec's history.

The government of Canada will invest more than 11 billion to build six new program ice breakers for the Canadian Coast Guard in partnership with Shantier Davyy. 650 million a year paid to people who live here. I'm your host David Boris.

This episode is being recorded on August 27th, 2026. by Canada [music] policy is no different than uh by American policy and uh the presumption that we always have [music] to be takers in these relationships is one that has always bothered me. No, we can be uh the country leading on this front [music] and we should be the country leading uh in terms of technology uh [music] construction design uh the component parts that go into ice breakers.

this moment in time. Contract that outlasts a presidency is not a headline. It is a mortgage.

Each of these ships, six ships will be built right here in Ley, built by Canadian workers and using Canadian materials. [applause] 200 years of this yard, it has seen worse decades. This contract alone will help to create and maintain nearly 5,000 jobs.

And that's just during the construction built for Canadian water, which is the whole argument construction. The second million dollar economy can ships radar. are drones.

Somebody drew a map first. And that's just during the construction phase. It will contribute up to $650 million to the Canadian economy annually.

It will support welders, electricians, plumbers and painters who are carrying out this project and the engineers and designers that are behind all of it. ers that are behind all of it. Long term, but the jobs these will be long-term careers here.

Not just jobs, but long-term careers. And at that same time, that's important. [applause] Country losing a war still funds its Arctic.

Read that twice. Today's announcement continues the ship building tradition in Levy. that stretches back two centuries.

Two centuries. Since 1825, Davy has built hundreds of vessels, including 35 warships for Canada and our allies during the Second World War. Today, we're building on that proud legacy, investing in Canadian ship building on a scale not seen in generations.

Economic security is national security. She ran both files. long term.

[applause] They did not invent the rule. They just stopped being the exception throughout the depths of winter and in our Arctic throughout the summer glass that the shipyard will be building. will be high-tech ice breakers.

Each one will be specially designed and built for Canadian waters and strong enough to cross a channel that an oil tanker can follow, but also narrow enough to be able to navigate our waterways and lakes. The Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence and Atlantic Canada.

Everyone who ever came here came by water, including the ones threatening it, the Great Lakes, and the St. Lawrence and Atlantic Canada. These were all contribute to ensuring maritime travel and billions of dollars of trade every year.

They will break ice, escort ships through frozen waters, and will clear ports and docks that our commercial fishers depend on. And in the Arctic during the shipping season, they will open up waterways for ships that will be transporting supplies, merchandise, and workers that our northern communities count on. It is thanks to these ice breakers that trade exchanges can continue to take place 12 months a year in Canada.

Watch where a country spends money it will not see returned for a decade. That is where it thinks it will still be. The first ship arrives in 2032, the full fleet in 2038.

Nobody in that room will be in the same job. That is the point of it. And notice what the money actually does on its way there.

It goes to a yard in Levy that has been building ships since 1825. It goes to steel workers in Sal Staint Marie, fabricators in Bmpton, specialists in Hamilton, marine equipment in Chester, Nova Scotia. That is the same steel sector a 50% tariff was aimed at this summer.

It just received a 10-year order from its own government. The most honest voice in this story is not a politician. It is a woman who used to run the Coast Guard and then ran the defense department.

And she says three things at once. That by Canada has real downsides. That Canada has neglected its own Arctic while Russia has not.

And that she still expects the American relationship to steady itself. She also said the sentence, "This whole trade war has been circling for a year. If companies do not want to be here, we are not a secure nation.

Ships are the slowest thing a country can decide to build, which is why deciding to build them says more than any speech. To advance and advance Canada. On the 24th of August 2026, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced an 11.

3 billion contract awarded to Chantier Davyy to construct six polar class 3 ice breakers for the Canadian Coast Guard, the largest ship building contract in Quebec's history. Construction starts in 2027 with the initial ship entering service in 2032 and full fleet deployment expected by 2038 to replace aging heavy and medium ice breakers. This fleet acquisition connects with an $816 million surveillance package announced earlier this year, which funds a 247 maritime domain awareness hub in Ekalowit, four long range Arctic radar sites along the Northwest Passage and Hudson Strait, autonomous drones and helicopter sensor upgrades.

in understanding um the cooperation needed to manage the Arctic. I I would say in particular and Canada's critical role as you know the the second largest donor of Arctic uh uh geography in the world and you know Russia has invested a lot in their Arctic uh we have not and so I think teaming with and partnering with other countries uh really critical for us and our sovereignty it's really fascinating because architecture Well, I think NATO looks to Canada to be a leader in uh our defense of the Arctic. Uh and it's only recently that NATO has shown interest in the Arctic and certainly uh it's not before time.

the the Russian in buildup to pre-s Soviet levels of uh their bases in the Arctic, the movement of goods through the uh the Russian Arctic is really quite remarkable. And you know, despite uh fighting a war that is impoverishing that country, they continue to invest in the Arctic. That should be an indicator to the rest of us that we need to pay attention.

And so that we are finally paying attention I think is a really positive thing. Uh every time employment, Canadian innovation, Canadian technology, all of it matters to who we are as a nation. Uh and you know getting things quicker doesn't necessarily mean better, right?

Uh and our economic uh security matters to our national security. if you don't if you have high unemployment, if uh the dollar is weak, if companies don't want to be in Canada, we're not a secure nation. And so our national security and our economic security are tied and ship building and by Canada is just an element of that that I think is really critical component parts that go into ice breakers.

We have the largest, you know, Arctic coastline in the free world. Yeah. And uh we and Canadian technology should be leading the way.

And so yes, service, but I think it affects your sovereignty if you cannot uh manage your fleet yourself. And so there are downsides for sure to uh having a by Canada approach, but I think the upside outweighs those uh every time. uh it was the right thing to do for Canada.

And I will note that there are a lot of cynics out there who think it was the move was just about meeting the NATO 2%. Coastg Guard budget isn't really that large. It's been augmented recently.

The adding of the Coast Guard, the addition of the Coast Guard to national defense actually doesn't move the needle that much on 2% at all. This is about interoperability just augments what already is done expertly by the coast guard. Now Canada, the United States and Finland have established the ICE pact, a really actually incredible agreement that not a lot of Canadians even know about.

Could could you quickly just unpack as far as you understand what the pact is? So, it's an agreement to share information, to share technology, and to assist each other with the expansion of icebreaking fleets, to work together, uh, exercise together, uh, do, uh, conduct joint operations together. And so, it is a really positive thing.

Uh, and very few Canadians know about it. I I often joke that the Coast Guard is entirely too modest and doesn't talk about how critical they are to us as a nation. Uh so the ICE pact I think is really important.

We have all these agreements on the military side of things uh and some coast guards are military uh entities but ours is a civilian agency. This is uh a step forward in understand sovereignty as far as our control of the waters extend. So the enforcement is done through presence and through the acquisition of information.

Okay. uh it is not through kinetic activity and uh I don't know if that's being examined at this point in time. I think it's something that should be entered into very cautiously.

Uh we have studied arming the coast guard in the past um particularly the the large ice breakers and that's worth reviewing again but it changes the nature of the agency and it adds a ton of cost because once you arm a vessel you have to be able to use that armament. It's a continual leading the way. And so, yes, things are difficult right now.

I do believe they will return to a more stable um perspective, but this opportunity, this moment in time, and I'm sort of going to tie in further to Canadian sovereignty. So, obviously, as we're recording this right now, relations between ourselves and the United States are fractious to say the least. um under this by Cananadian umbrella right as this trade friction this tariff war is heating up you know this announcement comes at a moment when we're trying to decide who do we purchase from where do we build things who are our partners we have the ice pact which is an incredible agreement between you know a really positive agreement and at the same time we have this back and forth between both our administrations um how much should we interp interpret the this investment through that broader geopolitical context and in your opinion do these developments have any bearing on the recent ice pack between Canada, Finland and the United States?

Obviously not Finland but the United States obviously and the United States obviously not Finland but the United States obviously. So uh by Canada policy is no different than uh by American policy and uh the presumption that we always have to be takers in these relationships is one that has always bothered me. No, we can be uh the country leading on this front and we should be the country leading uh in terms of technology uh construction design of our defense industrial strategy in action.

When Canada builds our own ships, the benefits are felt across the country by design. And you know, the sovereignty of a country that has the world's largest and longest coastline depends on our strength at sea. The Coast Guard is central to that strength to that strength.

And when Canadians see that distinctive red hole coming over the horizon, they know that our waters are being watched over. They know help is at hand. They know that the way ahead will be clear.

So to finish, last week we launched together the largest clean energy investment in North American history. Today we are launching the largest ship building contract in Quebec's history. No matter the headwinds, the work of building Canada strong goes on uninterrupted.

No matter the I think Canadians need to understand that we are a maritime nation. Uh and so uh our history has been everything about Canadian history is because we are a maritime nation.