The landing of an $8-billion contract by Seaspan Shipyards is drawing interest from at least one Prince George steel fabricator, but it's too early to know if any will be cashing in.
Northern Steel Ltd. vice president Eduard Hausot said his firm will be keeping an eye out for opportunities and noted the fabricator has done plenty of marine-related work such as barges and floating components.
"We could probably handle some fairly large pieces for Seaspan but these projects don't happen overnight," Hausot said, and added he expects it will be at least a year of preparation before any, "real heavy fabrication begins."
"I'm not sure what their timeline is but an $8-billion project takes some time to hit the ground in the shops."
On Wednesday, Seaspan was awarded the contract to build several non-combat ships for the federal government.
Seaspan CEO Jonathan Whitworth said the bid package so far includes about seven vessels: three fisheries vessels, two joint-support ships close to 160 metres long, an ice beaker and several smaller vessels.
WolfTek Industries Inc. owner Bruce Sutherland said his firm will "definitely look at it" but may be too busy meeting obligations for regional projects like mines, pipelines and liquefied natural gas plants.
If anything, Sutherland said the Seaspan contract will siphon away skilled workers for a taxpayer-funded project who would otherwise be working on projects that will bring in money from outside B.C.
"Our problem right now is trying to find skilled workers," he said.
It was the same lament from Del-Tech Manufacturing Inc. owner Brian Fehr.
"We're way too busy," he said. "I know I will be using that as an example of where the federal government is doing skills trades training for a [marine] industry when we need it in forestry and the mining."
Jobs, tourism and innovation minister Pat Bell said the work will have a province-wide spin-off but also stressed it will be some time yet before those effects are felt.
"It's too early for any of the contracts to even start coming out yet," said Bell, the MLA for Prince George-Mackenzie.
"Seaspan will start tendering about $150 million worth of contracts in the next two or three weeks and that's kind of when things might get ramped up."
