The Coast Guard Ship Corporal McLaren lists to one side after it was released from its secured cradle at the Canadian Maritime Engineering Ltd. shipyard in Sambro Head in November 2018. - Ryan TaplinOTTAWA – The federal government paid $520,000 to a Nova Scotia shipyard owner to store a “dead” coast guard ship, the same shipyard owner being sued by the government for negligence because it was repairing the vessel when it was ruined by vandals five years ago.
In total, the nearly new ship suffered $14 million in damage as the result of suspected vandalism, according to a statement of claim filed by the federal government against Canadian Maritime Engineering in early 2021. In its statement of defence, CME denied any responsibility and said that it acted “reasonably” and “took appropriate care” of the ship at all times. It also argued that the vandalism caused “significant” damage to the company’s equipment and blocked access to its main slipway, causing it “significant economic loss.”
On July 26, the department awarded the $503,000 contract to Pictou Shipyard, owned by CME, the same company that owns the Sambro site where the vessel was damaged in the first place. The value of the contract was later increased to $520,000. Alan Williams, a former assistant deputy minister for materiel at the Department of National Defence, says the company should have been blacklisted from ever touching the ship again from the get-go.