The Siren Song of Independence

In the summer of 2010, the Canadian government unveiled the National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy. The NSPS is meant to award shipbuilding contracts worth $33 billion to two Canadian shipyards. To calm the regional politics that often accompany defence procurements, Cabinet ministers delegated the selection of the yards to a committee of senior bureaucrats, and ensured that the names of the competing firms would be kept secret throughout the process. This effort to avoid political interference was widely praised when the results of the competition were announced in the fall of 2011. Although Nova Scotia’s Irving Shipbuilding and British Columbia’s Seaspan Shipyards won out over the Quebec-based Davie Shipbuilding, there was remarkably little grumbling. Since then, the Conservative government has vaunted the success of the strategy and its efforts to rebuild the Royal Canadian Navy.

However, an important point about the NSPS has been glossed over: no contracts...