The first of four new tugboats built for the Royal Canadian Navy have arrived in British Columbia, two years behind schedule and nearly four years since the first steel was cut for the $102-million project.
The four-vessel fleet will be split between Canada's Pacific and Atlantic fleets, in Esquimalt, B.C., and Halifax, respectively, with the arrival of the two East Coast vessels currently delayed until November 2025 and September 2026.
The contract to build the new naval tugboats was awarded to Quebec's Ocean Industries Inc. in April 2019. The boats are expected to support the navy's newest vessels, including the Arctic and offshore patrol ships and the future River-class destroyers.
The tugboats were initially expected to launch in the fall of 2022, but the navy and Transport Canada required changes to their existing designs, which led to a "longer than expected" design review process, before construction could begin, a spokesperson for the Department of National Defence told CTV News in an emailed statement.
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