Canadian Coast Guard heavy icebreaker Terry Fox i
St. Catharines, Ontario, headquartered Heddle Shipyards has been awarded a CAD 135.5 million (about US$99 million) contract for the Vessel Life Extension (VLE) of the Canadian Coast heavy icebreaker CCGS Terry Fox.
The almost three-year mission will contain an intensive engineering, planning and procurement part, with shipyard work scheduled to start in December 2023. This multi-year mission will create and maintain over 200 hundred jobs on the Port Weller Dry Docks by way of the summer season of 2025 when the heavy icebreaker is scheduled for redelivery.
Heddle Shipyards says that, as the most important single mission within the historical past of the Canadian Coast Guard’s VLE Program, the CCGS Terry Fox VLE will create broad financial and social advantages for St. Catharines, the Niagara Region, Ontario and Canada.
“The CCGS Terry Fox Vessel Life Extension Project is transformational for Heddle Shipyards and Ontario,” says Heddle Shipyards President and CEO, Shaun Padulo. “The award of the project marks the conclusion of phase one of our five-year business plan developed in 2021 and will provide Heddle with the platform to become Canada’s partner for future Vessel Life Extension projects and the construction of vessels for the Canadian Coast Guard and Royal Canadian Navy. I am extremely proud of our people and excited for our future. Our goal was to bring Ontario into the National Shipbuilding Strategy in a meaningful way, and the Terry Fox is just the tip of the iceberg.”
Strategically positioned above Lock One on the Welland Canal, the Port Weller Dry Docks facility is the most important Canadian-owned dry dock facility on the Great Lakes, with two Seawaymax graving docks and greater than 1,000 toes of wharfage.
