On Thursday, the Federal Government announced its commitment to building two heavy icebreakers for operations in the Arctic. The ships will be constructed at Seaspan Shipyards in North Vancouver and by Davie Shipbuilding in Levi, Quebec. These new ships will to replace the coast guard’s principal heavy icebreaker, the CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent, which is almost 55 years old. In a press release, Seaspan states that construction of an icebreaker will sustain approximately 1,400 jobs at Seaspan’s Vancouver shipyard and 1,400 additional jobs in the marine industry across the country. The icebreaker, Seaspan’s fourth class of vessel for the National Shipbuilding Strategy, will be constructed at the company’s North Vancouver shipyard, a high-capacity multi-program yard that is one of the most modern and efficient in North America and was purpose-built to deliver Canada’s largest and most complex ships. The Polar Icebreaker will be built concurrently with the second Joint Support Ship for the Royal Canadian Navy, the largest naval vessel by length ever to be built in Canada, and the largest and most advanced ocean science research ship for the Canadian Coast Guard.