CCGS John G. Diefenbaker

Career (Canada)
Name:	CCGS John G. Diefenbaker
Namesake:	John G. Diefenbaker
Owner:	Government of Canada
Operator:	Canadian Coast Guard
Builder:	Seaspan Marine Corporation
Cost:	721 million dollars projected
General characteristics
Length:	Approx. 140 metres (462 ft)

CCGS John G. Diefenbaker is the name for a Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker that is expected to join the fleet in 2017. Its namesake, John G. Diefenbaker, was Canada's 13th prime minister. It was Diefenbaker's government that founded the Canadian Coast Guard in 1962.

Project history

Originally named the Polar Class Icebreaker Project, the vessel's commissioned name was announced by Prime Minister Stephen Harper during a visit to Inuvik, Northwest Territories on 28 August 2008.

The $720 million project was announced in the 27 February 2008 federal budget as a replacement for the nation's largest icebreaker and the flagship of the coast guard, the CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent.^[1][2][3][4]

The term "Polar Class" by the government and media is somewhat confusing as according to the International Association of Classification Societies, all vessels operating in sea ice must be assigned a Polar class, with PC 1 being capable of "Year-round operation in all Polar waters"^[5]

Minister of Defence Peter MacKay has stated that the icebreaker will be built in Canada.^[6] According to the Halifax Chronicle Herald, Halifax Shipyards, located in MacKay's home province can expect some of the construction work. As of the award of the NSPS contracts, the Polar Icebreaker will now be built by Seaspan in British Columbia. Minister of Fisheries and Oceans Loyola Hearn announced the icebreaker will be homeported in his riding of St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador. He also stated that the vessel will be larger than the CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent which it will be replacing.^[7]

On Friday, May 30, 2008, Chuck Strahl the Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development wrote about the proposed icebreaker in a letter to the editor of the Windsor Star. Strahl wrote that the icebreaker would help protect the Arctic environment, and Canadian sovereignty. In addition he wrote that the Canadian Rangers would be expanded, and that a new Arctic research centre would be built in Resolute Bay.

Michael Byers, the Canada Research chair in global politics and international law at UBC, stated that "this icebreaker and new money for mapping is something that Arctic experts like myself have been calling for, for some years now. I hope it's real. I hope it's not just an election promise.^[3] We need it and we need it right now. But I'm still somewhat skeptical. This has been done before for cynical electoral politics."^[8]

The Canadian Coast Guard announced on 28 April 2010 that it is "currently in at the preliminary stages of conceptual design for the polar icebreaker. A “Request for Proposals” to undertake detailed design work will likely be ready mid-2011. Vessel construction is presently scheduled to begin in 2013 with completion of trials and final acceptance anticipated for late 2017." ^[9]

Other icebreaker projects in Canada

Polar 8

In 1985 the Government of Canada announced plans to build a fleet of several icebreakers for the Canadian Coast Guard. This was known as the Polar 8 Project and would have consisted of massive icebreakers with Polar class of PC 1. The Polar 8 project was cancelled in 1990 while still in the design stage^[8] in favour of refitting the CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent.

The original $700 million per vessel pricetag of an icebreaker from the Polar 8 Project in 1985, when adjusted for inflation to 2008, would be approximately $1.3 billion, therefore it is quite likely that the CCGS John G. Diefenbaker will be a much smaller vessel than the Polar 8 Project envisioned, albeit larger than the CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent.^[10]

Arctic Patrol Ship Project

The federal government announced in 2007 that it would procure a fleet of 8 light icebreaker patrol ships for the Canadian Forces. The Arctic Patrol Ship Project is based on a Royal Norwegian Navy patrol boat design (see NoCGV Svalbard) used in the Barents Sea with a polar class of PC 5; thus they will be significantly smaller and less capable than what was envisioned in the Polar 8 project, which would have extended the capabilities of the Canadian Coast Guard's operations in the Arctic Ocean. Some media and political sources termed these vessels with their limited ice capability to be mere "slush breakers."^[11] The first of these ships is expected to be delivered by 2014. A contract for the construction of these ships is due to be signed by early 2012 following the Canadian Governments NSPS announcements in May. These vessels will be contructed by Irving Shipbuilders in Halifax, Nova Scotia

References

1. ^ "Arctic icebreaker, fishing port, tax break a start: northerners". CBC News. February 27, 2008. http://www.cbc.ca/canada/north/story/2008/02/27/north-reax.html. Retrieved 2008-03-04.  mirror
2. ^ Chris Windeyer (February 29, 2008). "Feds to replace old icebreaker". Nunatsiaq News. Archived from the original on 2008-03-03. http://web.archive.org/web/20080303122736/http://www.nunatsiaq.com/news/nunavut/80229_964.html. Retrieved 2008-03-04. "Ottawa will put aside $720 million this year to commission the icebreaker, which the government says will have better ice breaking capability than the Louis St. Laurent, considered the workhorse of the Coast Guard." 
3. ^ ^{a b} Lee Berthiaume (February 27, 2008). "Icebreaker Replacement Deadline Looms: Despite $720 million in yesterday's federal budget, procurement for a new polar icebreaker will take eight to 10 years". Embassy, Canada's Foreign Policy Newsletter. http://www.embassymag.ca/html/index.php?display=story&full_path=/2008/february/27/icebreaker_deadline/. Retrieved 2008-03-04. "Despite setting aside $720 million in yesterday's budget to purchase a new polar class icebreaker, the government will be cutting things close if it wants to decommission the ageing Louis St. Laurent heavy icebreaker as scheduled by 2017, according to Canadian Coast Guard commissioner George Da Pont." 
4. ^ Brodie Thomas (March 3, 2008). "Reaction mixed on fed's budget". Northern News Services. http://nnsl.com/northern-news-services/stories/papers/mar3_08bud.html. Retrieved 2008-03-04.  mirror
5. ^ "Requirements concerning POLAR CLASS" (PDF). International Association of Classification Societies (IACS). August 2006. January 2007 (Rev. 1). October 2007 (Corr. 1).. http://www.iacs.org.uk/document/public/Publications/Unified_requirements/PDF/UR_I_pdf410.pdf. Retrieved 2008-03-11.  mirror
6. ^ Stephen Maher (February 28, 2008). "Little news not good news for region: $720 million allocated to replace coast guard icebreaker". Halifax Chronicle Herald. http://thechronicleherald.ca/News/1040406.html. Retrieved 2008-03-04. 
7. ^ Tara Mullowney (March 4, 2008). "Feds fall short: Ottawa must do more, politicians say". Southern Gazette. http://www.southerngazette.ca/index.cfm?sid=113576&sc=382. Retrieved 2008-03-04. "...and $720 million in funding for the Coast Guard will translate into a polar class ice-breaker that will be based in Newfoundland...“This is a bigger boat, so you can add to that.”"  mirror
8. ^ ^{a b} "Budget's "anywhere, any time" icebreaker welcomed, if it gets built:experts". Canadian Press. February 29, 2008. http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5jWk3CWh8wiw4CsTB15nLqR0oopWA. Retrieved 2008-03-04. 
9. ^ Fisheries and Oceans Canada web site, http://www.ccg-gcc.gc.ca/e0010762
10. ^ Bank of Canada Inflation Calculator
11. ^ "Harper on Arctic: 'Use it or lose it'". Times Colonist. http://www.canada.com/topics/news/story.html?id=7ca93d97-3b26-4dd1-8d92-8568f9b7cc2a&k=73323. Retrieved 2008-09-04.  mirror

External links

• "Icebreakers and the Arctic Ocean". Slave River Journal. 2008-11-14. http://www.srj.ca/default.asp?sourceid=&smenu=88&twindow=Default&mad=No&sdetail=3184&wpage=1&skeyword=&sidate=&ccat=&ccatm=&restate=&restatus=&reoption=&retype=&repmin=&repmax=&rebed=&rebath=&subname=&pform=&sc=1957&hn=srj&he=.ca. Retrieved 2008-11-14.  mirror