Dry dock approval for Victoria harbour brings high hopes for highly paid jobs

Victoria city council gave its unanimous final approval Thursday for a new graving dock also known as a dry dock that promises to double the number of high-paying jobs for marine tradespeople at a downtown shipyard.

The $50-plus million project at Victoria Harbour'sPoint Hope Maritime shipyards still requires a lengthyfederal review. But company and union officials are already calculating the economic spinoffs, which they estimate will bring200 newjobs at wages that startnear $100,000.

Phil Venoit, president of the Vancouver Island Metal Trades Council, and Electrical Workers Union, calledthe project "great news for people in the marine sector."

"It's good-paying private sector jobs that will go a long ways to help them pay mortgages, to raise families," Venoit said. He estimated the top salariescould be as high as $150,000 when overtime is factored..

The company peggedthe regional economic impact at$60 million to $96 million annually once the drydock iscompleted.

It will be built to handle vessels up to 170 metres long, including most ferries and all of Canada's navy frigates.

Venoittold On the Island host GregorCraigiethe dock project signals improved conditions for the local shipbuilding sector.

When he started in the shipyards during the industry's heydayin 1981, he said, more than 2,200 were employed by the Yarrows shipyard in Esquimalt, the navy dockyardand other smaller firms.

Those jobsdeclined dramatically after 1986 whenthe government of Canada made changes to steel subsidies for the industry, and shipbuilding contracts went overseas, Venoitsaid.

The industry, he said, "went from downsizing to right-sizing to almost capsizing."

Whatkept the industry afloatover the past decade werefederalgovernmentcontracts forCoast Guard vessels, ocean sciences research vessels and replenishment of the naval fleet, Venoit said.

Opportunities with LNGconversion

Looking ahead in the shipbuilding sector, he said the potential for liquefied natural gas (LNG)conversion of diesel-electric vessels shows potential to transform the industry.

"There's only the first one ever rolled off a German shipyard about a month and a half ago, and Victoria Shipyards is working on the second LNG conversion in the world,"Venoit said.

With files from CBCRadio One's On the Island with Gregor Craigie.