Coast Guard retiring key ocean science vessel, replacement delayed yet again

Published January 19, 2022 at 1:30 pm

OTTAWA — The federal government says it is being forced to retire one of the country’s most important science vessels, even as work on its replacement has hit yet another snag.

The Canadian Coast Guard announced this afternoon that age has finally caught up to the 59-year-old CCGS Hudson, and the science vessel is being decommissioned.

The difficult decision came after one of the ship’s motors broke last November and officials determined it was too expensive to both repair it and upgrade other outdated parts of the vessel to meet new regulations.

The coast guard will now be without a dedicated ocean research vessel for years as the government says the Hudson’s replacement has experienced yet another delay and won’t arrive until at least 2025.

The government originally planned to receive the Hudson’s replacement from Vancouver’s Seaspan Shipyards, which is building the ship, in 2017, but had most recently been targeting delivery in 2024.

Aside from many delays, the shipbuilding project has also seen numerous cost overruns, with the original $108-billion budget now nearing $1 billion.