LEVIS — The federal government will pour $11.3 billion into Quebec’s shipbuilding industry to build six new icebreakers for the Canadian Coast Guard, Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Monday.
Carney called it the “largest” shipbuilding contract in the province’s history.
“We will move fast. The first steel will be cut next fall, the first ship will be delivered five years later, and the full fleet will be in service five years after that,” Carney said.
“They will work in Atlantic Canada, the St. Lawrence throughout the depth of winter, and in our Arctic throughout the summer.”
Carney said the contract to replace the coast guard’s aging heavy and medium icebreakers will support 5,000 jobs during their construction.
The prime minister made the announcement alongside Quebec Premier Christine Frechette at the Chantier Davie shipyard in Levis, Que., where all six ships will be constructed.
Frechette, who is about to head into a provincial election campaign, called it a great day for Levis.
She said the contract will protect the province’s economic sovereignty and create good careers, such as welders and technicians.
Speaking in French, and alluding to the bilateral tensions with the United States, the premier said “some people might want to rule over us” but the province “will not yield to any kind of threat.”
The announcement comes just days after trade talks with the United States collapsed, and as President Donald Trump issues new tariff threats against Canadian industry.
The new vessels fall under the federal government’s “Buy Canadian” procurement policy, and will be built with Canadian steel, Carney’s office said.
Carney said the project will involve more than 1,500 suppliers from across the country, including steelworkers in Ontario, pointing to Sault Ste. Marie’s Algoma Steel, Brampton’s Brannon Steel and Hamilton’s Stigterstaal.
Conservative defence critic James Bezan said in a post on social media Monday that the Liberal government took too long from first declaring its intentions to replace the icebreakers to inking the final deal with Davie.
“Finally, a Liberal announcement that comes with a contract. Too bad it was signed over seven years after the project was originally announced,” Bezan posted on X.
“It is hard to take the Liberal talking point of `building at speeds never seen before’ seriously.”
The federal government announced the procurement for the vessels in 2019. Some of the past language under the previous Liberal government had also couched the eventual order as one for “up to six” icebreakers.
Ottawa announced its initial $19.6-million contract to Davie in 2024 under the national shipbuilding strategy to design the six new Polar Class 3 icebreakers.
The coast guard is going through a large fleet renewal, with the national shipbuilding strategy expected to oversee delivery of 88 new vessels in total by 2045.
At one point during the Monday news conference, Carney was asked about Canada’s co-operation with Washington under the trilateral ICE Pact designed to supply the U.S. with icebreakers.
Carney said that serves as a “reminder of one of the many, many, many things that the United States needs from Canada.”
ICE Pact is a trilateral partnership between the United States, Canada and Finland signed in 2024 and aimed at facilitating the manufacturing of more icebreakers.
The United States’ only has three ice breakers, one of which is in such a state of disrepair it is barely usable.
The ICE Pact would deliver to the U.S. 11 icebreakers involving Finnish designs and work by Davie.
“As important as today’s announcement is, it’s what’s to come is even more important,” Carney said.
“There’s a world in which America is part of that. That’s a sensible world. It’s a world after the fever breaks, and Canada will be a partner in that -- but on terms that work for Canadians.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 24, 2026.
With files from Kyle Duggan in Ottawa, Caroline Plante in Levis and The Associated Press
