Spinoffs Expected In New Brunswick From Shipbuilding Contract In Halifax

Even though Saint John will not be building any of the new navy ships, there will be spinoffs from the awarding of a 25 billion dollar contract to Irving Shipbuilding.

Mary Keith of J-D Irving tells CHSJ News there's already a supply chain in place and that will grow but there won't be any actual shipbuilding being done in Saint John. 

In 2009 and 2010, Irving Shipbuilding worked with 115 suppliers in this province. More than thirty of those suppliers had contracts worth over $100,000, and eight at more than $1 million. 

According to the Saint John Board of Trade, For every $1,000 in real GDP generated from shipbuilding inside Nova Scotia by this contract, another $491 is expected be spent in other regions across Canada, $20 of which will be spent in the other Atlantic provinces.

The Conference Board of Canada estimates for every thousand dollars spent on shipbuilding in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick's economy will benefit by just over 11 dollars which would mean New Brunswick would enjoy something like 275 million dollars of new gross domestic product over the next three decades.