Canada's Chief of the Defence Staff wants to see steel being cut for new warships.
General Walt Natynczyk spoke about the project to 1,500 delegates attending the Royal Canadian Legion convention in Halifax Tuesday morning.
There has been speculation that federal budget cuts could delay or even change plans to build new combat ships, but Natynczyk wanted to quash those rumours.
During a media scrum after his speech, Natynczyk told reporters he is concerned about the age of some of Canada's warships and he'd like to see new ones in the works soon.
"My concern is the ships are getting old," said Natynczyk. "As you know here in Halifax, our supply ships are 40 years old and our destroyers are 40 years old. So I look forward again, as part of Canada's First Defence Strategy, to get into the contract business and…working with the rest of the government in terms of deciding what kind of ships we need and getting on with it, because again, our ships are just getting old."
Irving Shipbuilding's Halifax shipyard was the successful bidder last fall for a $25-billion, 30-year combat ship replacement program.
Natynczyk says the military has done everything possible to safeguard capital projects and made budget cuts wherever possible to make sure expensive purchases, such as ships and planes, will not be affected by the cuts.
Irving Shipbuilding signed a framework agreement with the federal government earlier this year, but so far no contracts have been signed to build ships.
The Irving shipyard is currently completing a shipbuilding contract for the Canadian Coast Guard.
