Ontario Shipyards and Hanwha Ocean agreement could bring jobs to Hamilton

A memorandum of understanding was signed in Hamilton Wednesday that is set to bring in a Korean ship building company to share expertise and technology in our area.

That includes the maintenance of a new class of submarines that Canada is set to get.

It comes after the prime minister’s defence spending announcement this week.

Ontario Shipyards and Hanwha Ocean made the agreements to collaborate on ship building, maintenance, but also on education.

Mohawk College signed a letter of intent with the two companies, which will provide opportunities for students.

There’s also a plan for a hub to be built, right here in Hamilton.

“They’re going to transfer knowledge to us, so we can support our country in building ships,” said Shaun Padulo, the CEO of Ontario Shipyards.

Following Prime Minister Mark Carney’s launch of Canada’s defence industrial strategy, Ontario Shipyards and Hanwha Ocean have agreed to work together.

“I think it’s transformational for our country,” said Padulo. “We have a company like Hanwha Ocean in Korea, who is one of the largest ship builders in the world, that’s willing to come here and help support and build home grown capacity — sovereign defence capability.”

“The welding, the fabrication, the design, fluid dynamics — all those engineering skill sets, we’re going to bring here and help materialize in Ontario shipyards,” said Glenn Copeland, the CEO of Hanwha Canada.

Hanwha Ocean is looking to win a bid to build submarines for Canada.

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It says the submarines would be built in Korea, but the maintenance would be done locally.

“Having that entire in-service support structure associated with it, that’s going to be extremely important for Canadian industry,” said Copeland. “It will become a sovereign capability that Canada will manage over the entire life of the platforms.”

Ontario Shipyards says the main areas that will benefit are in Port Weller, St. Catharines, and Hamilton, with Mohawk College to also benefit.

The college signed a letter of intent to develop a dedicated shipbuilding learning hub.

“We can provide learning opportunities and knowledge transfer, that without their expertise, we would have trouble accessing,” said Paul Armstrong, the President of Mohawk College. “Being able to interact and engage with the students on that, just creates the best possible learning opportunities.”

Premier Doug Ford said Wednesday, “it’s about time Ontario gets a piece of the ship-building pie in Canada.”

“God bless the people in Nova Scotia, I love Premier [Tim] Houston, he’s my champion,” said Ford. “God bless the people in Québec, they’re getting all the ship building. We have great ship builders here, and all we’re asking is for some crumbs — a slice of the pie.”

Ontario Shipyards says within the next week, it will speak with Hanwha about helping to build a training and recruitment vessel in Hamilton — that will ideally be used to train sailors.

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