A new start for the New Brunswick Naval Centre

Quebec, April 20, 2016 – Ocean is supporting the relaunch of activities, announced on April 16 by the New Brunswick government, at the Naval Centre in Bas-Caraquet. The government’s involvement sends a highly positive message for Ocean and for New Brunswick’s economic development.

 “Let us recall that as of fall 2015, we started the construction of a floating dry dock in Bas-Caraquet. Twenty-seven workers from New Brunswick were hired for the project. Ultimately, some eighty direct jobs and forty indirect jobs will have been created for the dry dock alone. We strongly believe in the Naval Centre’s potential and already have many more projects being developed. We are ready to resume our activities in Bas-Caraquet as soon as possible,” said Jacques Tanguay, First Vice President and General Manager at Ocean.

With solid expertise in shipbuilding and repair in Eastern Canada, Ocean relies on the complementarity of its various worksites (Québec and Isle-aux-Coudres) and its 300 specialized workers in the field. With such resources, Ocean can regularly maintain its fleet of 75 ships of varied tonnages and over 600 barges.

“With the NB government, we are all working toward a common goal: to relaunch shipbuilding and repair in Bas-Caraquet, and create long term jobs for New Brunswickers. We are convinced of the shipyard’s long term development potential. Our aim is to position ourselves on the market to eventually bring in major contracts such as building small and medium-sized ships as planned under the federal government’s National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy,” added Jean-Philippe Brunet, Executive Vice President, Corporate and Legal Affairs.