Carney set to announce Canada’s new submarine fleet

Both Germany and South Korea are trying to sweeten their prospective deals for a Canadian submarine manufacturing contract.

OTTAWA - Prime Minister Mark Carney is set to announce a decision on procuring a new submarine fleet for the Royal Canadian Navy Monday in Halifax, multiple industry and government sources confirmed to CTV News.

Carney is expected to make the announcement in Halifax, before departing for a NATO meeting in Türkiye.

Two companies, German-Norwegian consortium ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS) and South Korea’s Hanwha, are competing for the contract to build 12 submarines. Both have made extensive promises of economic spinoffs for the Canadian economy should their respective bids win.

Only one of the Royal Canadian Navy’s existing four Victoria-class submarines is operational. The others are undergoing maintenance.

Canada’s patrol submarine project involves procuring up to 12 submarines and paying for 30 to 50 years of maintenance. The contract, over its entire lifespan, has an estimated value of more than $100 billion.

The submarines are expected to be a primary example of how Canada plans to increase its spending to reach the new NATO target of five per cent of GDP by 2035, which is part of the reason sources tell CTV News the government wanted to make the announcement before the Prime Minister’s trip to Türkiye.

The Defence Investment Agency, a newly created body, is responsible for evaluating the two bids.

Doug Guzman is the agency’s CEO. He was appointed by the prime minister and has three decades of experience in the global banking and financial sectors but has no procurement experience.

The federal government’s evaluation criteria are divided into four sections:

• Submarine platform, weighted at 20 per cent. This pertains to the technical aspects of the vessel.
• Sustainment, weighted at 50 per cent, which includes the maintenance plans over the submarine’s lifespan.
• Financial, weighted at 15 per cent, which includes how much it would cost to build the submarines.
• Strategic and Economic Partnerships, weighted at 15 per cent.

Guzman has said that the two foreign competitors need to put as many Canadian elements into their bids as possible if they want to win. TKMS and Hanwha submitted their bids on March 2. The two suppliers were then given an extension until April 29 to sweeten their bids.

With files from CTV News’ Graham Richardson, Judy Trinh, Stephanie Ha