Polar 8 Project - Epilogue

Epilogue

Arctic Patrol Ship Project

The federal government announced in 2007 that it would procure a fleet of 8 light icebreaker patrol ships for the Canadian Forces. The Arctic Patrol Ship Project is based on a Royal Norwegian Navy patrol boat design used in the Barents Sea with a polar class of PC 5; thus they will be significantly smaller and less capable than what was envisioned in the Polar 8 Project, which would have extended the lacking capabilities of the Canadian Coast Guard's operations in the Arctic Ocean. Some media and political sources termed these new patrol vessels with their limited ice capability to be mere "slush breakers".

Polar Class Icebreaker Project

The February 2008 federal budget announced a $720 million project to build a replacement for the CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent in FY 2017; an August 2008 announcement stated that the vessel's name was to be CCGS John G. Diefenbaker. Many political and media sources incorrectly called this new vessel a "Polar Class Icebreaker", however this is a misnomer since all vessels classed by a classification society as being capable of operating in sea ice must have a polar class which can range from PC 1 through PC 7.

The original $700 million per vessel pricetag of an icebreaker from the Polar 8 Project in 1985, when adjusted for inflation to 2008, would be approximately $1.3 billion, therefore it is quite likely that the CCGS John G. Diefenbaker will be a much smaller vessel than the Polar 8 Project envisioned, albeit larger than the CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent.