Ships “Officially” Start Here!

The Ships Start Here partnership is proud to announce today that Irving Shipbuilding has been chosen by the National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy to negotiate the right to build Canada’s next generation federal combat vessel fleet. Read the official release from the Government of Canada below.

Everyone involved in this effort shares in Irving Shipbuilding’s celebration. It is truly a privilege to be chosen to do this work.

We want to thank you for all your support, and for demonstrating that we are built to build.

Thank you to the incredible employees of Irving Shipbuilding Inc. Today’s news is due to your unmatched expertise, skills, and dedication.

Thank you to every Atlantic Canadian and those abroad who supported this campaign by putting up a lawn sign, placing stickers on your car, placing a pin on our virtual map (over 10,800 of you did that) or just telling a friend or colleague. Because of your support for this campaign, Canada knows we are built to build.

Thank you to the Province of Nova Scotia, Premier Darrell Dexter and his team, and every single member of the ShipsStartHere partnership. Your hard work and community spirit have constantly demonstrated our pride, strength, and confidence.

Finally, thank you to every single individual who supported the Ships Start Here effort and helped spread the word that we build the best ships in the world. We’re ready.

Sincerely,
The Ships Start Here partnership

http://shipsstarthere.ca/thankyou/

Phase 2 of changes in the one-way street patterns in Downtown Halifax starts this Monday!

Traffic change: the two-way blocks on Lower Water Street will convert to one-way traffic flow in the North bound direction.

Some of the downtown Halifax streets will change from one-way traffic, to two-way (and vice versa).

Initiated by a recommendation from HRMbyDesign and developed through public consultation, the changes in street directions will result in better organization of one-way street patterns. By converting some existing two-way streets to one-way, the plan will allow for new bike lanes and on-street parking spaces.

The changes will happen in a 3 Phase approach: the first September 19th, the second October 17th 2011 and the third in March 2012. To view a final street layout, once all of the changes are effective click here.

Over the past several years, HRM worked with downtown businesses on the development of a plan to modify traffic patterns on the downtown street network. The plan was first presented at an open house information session targeted at downtown businesses in April 2010. Since that time, modifications have been made based on feedback. A final proposal was presented at an open house session in November 2010.

http://www.halifax.ca/traffic/StreetNetworkChanges.html

Halifax waits anxiously for announcement regarding the $35 billion navy contract.

You can almost feel the tension these days as Halifax anticipates the potential awarding of a federal contract to Irving Shipbuilding to construct $35 billion worth of ships for the Royal Canadian Navy over the next 20 or 25 years.

Nobody really knows when the Conservative government will make the announcement, but most people expect it to happen sometime next week. The sooner, the better, I say.

And considering that Irving Shipbuilding, the owner of Halifax Shipyard, already has a track record as the builder of most of Canada’s existing naval fleet, the expectation is that most of the National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy contract will land here.

The company is based in Halifax, but all the work couldn’t be carried out here. Irving would be expected to distribute work to the other shipbuilding and fabrication yards it owns: East Isle Shipyard in Georgetown, P.E.I.; Shelburne Ship Repair; and Steel & Engine Products in Liverpool.

There is plenty of work to go round to non-Irving subcontractors, too, but Irving spokeswoman Mary Keith says she can’t reveal the potential subcontractors.

Tony Goode, a former Canadian naval officer and now a consultant with CFN Consultants (Atlantic) in Halifax, says if Irving wins the contract, there are a myriad of components, systems and subsystems that it will need.

For instance, Goode says, Irving will need to acquire the main engines, the main propulsion system and radars, but who will supply those components is proprietary information at this stage.

According to the schedule outlined in the procurement strategy, he says the program’s first phase will essentially decide which of three shipyards vying for the work is going to build large ships for the Canadian Coast Guard.

“(The) first thing that will be given will be an umbrella agreement with the winning shipyards, which will determine the sort of baseline commitments the yard will be making. But this is not a financial contract, in the classic sense of the word.

The first actual contract to be negotiated, which will involve costs, etcetera, and provide the government with firm pricing for the next class of ships, will be for the Arctic and offshore patrol ships.”

Goode says negotiations on that first contract, worth about $5 billion, will start next January, with a deal to be sorted out by June or July.

As part of the negotiations, a detailed statement of work will be outlined and then the winning shipyard will go and get bids from a variety of subcontractors that will provide the systems, subsystems and components needed to complete the work.

“At this stage in the game, they really don’t know who those subcontractors are going to be,” Goode says.

As the main naval shipbuilder, Irving already works with a several trusted subcontractors, including Lockheed Martin Canada, which are expected to be part of the team if it wins the contract.

Irving is also expected to make some changes to its Barrington Street shipyard, most notably the creation of a gigantic hall-like structure that will allow work to be carried out indoors.

While there is heavy pressure, locally, for Halifax to win the big contract, there seems to be an early effort to soften the blow if the decision goes against Halifax.

It has been pointed out that the coast guard contract may be about $5 billion initially, but it will have to replace its fleet of ships over the next 20 years, too, so there could be more work where that came from.

Despite the peddling of the coast guard contract, it is the fat navy contract that provides the most secure long-term prospects for the Maritime economy.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1267877.html

Nova Scotia Apartment Buildings Growing

While construction of single detached homes has declined in the past year, the number of apartment buildings dotting the Halifax cityscape keeps going up.

According to statistics released on Tuesday by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp., there were 289 housing starts in the Halifax region in September, up more than 51 per cent from the same month in 2010.

But that jump was due entirely to an increase in multi-residential starts, which more than doubled to 184 in September from 86 last year. The number of single-detached starts remained unchanged at 105.

Overall single-detached starts have declined by 15.4 per cent in Halifax in 2011 but multi-residential starts jumped 38.2 per cent.

In Nova Scotia centres with more than 10,000 people, single-detached starts are down 17.3 per cent for 2011, while multiple-residential units are up 30 per cent.

The numbers aren’t surprising given a variety of socioeconomic factors, including an aging population, stagnating economic growth, employment, wages and inflation, explained Matthew Gilmore, the corporations’ senior regional market analyst.

“Those kinds of things all play together and really create the demand for housing,” he said. “And we’ve had a fairly low vacancy rate and builders and multi-residential builders are responding to that low vacancy, responding to that demand and putting up more units.”

Paul Pettipas, chief executive officer of the Nova Scotia Home Builders’ Assoc., said those factors are also encouraging people to live in apartments longer.

“A lot of these are higher-end apartments, they’re almost a condominium quality and I think what they’re capturing there is the boomers and the people who are getting out of houses and instead of moving into condominiums, they’re finding an apartment,” he said.

The corporations’ numbers did not come as a surprise to Louis Lawen, head of Dexel Developments Ltd., which is building several multi-unit projects, including the 10-storey Victoria Suites apartment building at the corner of Hollis and Morris streets.

He pegged pent-up demand and interest rates as a contributing factor in the popularity of multi-residential units.

“I’d imagine that people in 2008 that had projects might have temporarily put them on hold and now you’re finally seeing a couple of years later those projects actually coming to fruition combined with low interest rates.”

Ben Young, chief executive officer at Ramar Construction, said high fees levied by all three levels of government on new home construction are dissuading first-time buyers from entering the market and that affects housing starts.

“They’re outrageous. I mean that’s just pouring cold water on an industry that’s so important to the economy,” he said. “If the government continues to pile on fees, this is going to be a bigger problem in the future.”

External issues far from Nova Scotia’s shorelines are also a factor, he said.

“I do think that people are emotional, too,” Young said. “They react to things that don’t affect Haligonians, like the international news. It seems odd but you talk about the European crisis and people hear that and it puts them in a negative state of mind.”

What could reverse that trend is the multi-billion dollar federal shipbuilding contract that could land in Halifax.

“We need some good news,” Pettipas said. “If Nova Scotia was to get that main part of that shipbuilding contract, I think it would be good news.”

http://thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1268032.html

October 2011 Market Update

The national housing market remains firmly planted in balanced territory. Year-to-date sales continue on pace with the ten-year average. According to Gary Morose, CREA president, “Through their actions, home buyers are showing that they remain confident about the stability of the Canadian housing market, and recognize that the continuation of low interest rates presents an excellent opportunity to buy their first home or trade up.”

While debt levels around the world remain a downside risk to the outlook, Canada’s gradually improving domestic landscape provides a margin of safety. “Despite an increased focus on external risks, the Bank still expects Canada’s economy to post stronger growth in the second half of the year, supported both by business and household spending.” The key will be to do so without elevating household debt to unsustainable levels.

The balanced market provides a fair playing ground with opportunities for both buyers and sellers. For the time being, interest rates remain historically low and present buyers with extremely favourable financing, but as global recovery regains its footing, rates will likely rise to keep inflation in check.