A month-old shipbuilding story

The Ottawa Citizen's ace defence reporter has this major story today:

Navy urges steady flow of shipbuilding
Current policy supports cycle of boom and bust in industry: report

...current government policy supports a "boom and bust" cycle whereby shipyards build large numbers of vessels in a short period and then have to lay off their staff until the next contract comes along...

"Without adequate industry infrastructure and associated skill sets, ongoing maintenance of present and future naval assets would be compromised," the report noted...

Funny, he wrote a very similar story for DefenceNews.com just under a month ago.

Canada Wants To Smooth Way for Shipbuilding Orders

Current government policy supports a “boom-and-bust” cycle, where shipyards work full tilt on construction and then face an economic downturn and layoffs of skilled labor at the end of each vessel-building program...

“Without adequate industry infrastructure and associated skill sets, ongoing maintenance of present and future naval assets would be compromised,” said the 7-page report, “Canadian Shipyards: Capacity, Capabilities and Issues.”..

Both stories are based on the same April 2006 DND report, obtained via Access to Information (Mr Pugliese's maintstay). The story published today does, I'm glad to see, add that:

In addition, the Canadian Coast Guard is in need of new ships...

As for timeliness:

...in February, Vice Adm. Drew Robertson, head of the Canadian Navy, told the House of Commons standing committee on national defense that predictability in the construction of warships would help the domestic shipbuilding industry, which has faced major financial problems...