Arctic/Offshore Patrol Ships: Neverer land still

See the Arctic/Offshore Patrol Ship link in this excerpt from an August 1 post:

The Government held a Shipbuilding Forum earlier this week on 27-28 July. The CDA released a press release commenting on the event, available at the link below. Murray Brewster for the Canadian Press reports on ship procurement in Canada and interviews Senator Colin Kenny about the issue.
http://www.cda-cdai.ca/cda/policy-statements-presentation/cda-welcomes-federa...
http://thechronicleherald.ca/Canada/1135215.html ...

[Shock and horror--I agree with Jim Travers of the Toronto Star; it's political oink, oink, oink to insist on building Navy and Coast Guard vessels in Canada. Then there's the problem that the Navy's envisaged Arctic/Offshore Patrol Ships and Joint Support Ships cost too much in any event as they are neither fish nor fowl.]

Now (should be a "kept" in the headline before "on hold"):

Arctic ships on hold awaiting shipbuilding strategy: official

The navy's proposed Arctic patrol ship project has been put on hold until the federal government works out a shipbuilding strategy with industry.

Defence contractors were notified recently that a meeting of bureaucrats and industry officials, scheduled for Aug. 12, has been postponed indefinitely, The Canadian Press has learned.

As well, the issuing of a letter of interest, the first step in the long, cumbersome contract process, has also been delayed with no new timetable listed, according to an internal National Defence email obtained by the news agency.

A project management office, set up to oversee the construction of the six light icebreakers, said it will continue to post documents and reports online and that in the meantime "industry is welcome to review and provide comments" on that information.

It is the latest setback for the program, one of the Conservative government's pet projects to increase Canada's profile in the Arctic and comes just two weeks before Prime Minister Stephen Harper embarks on a summer tour of the North.

A spokesman for National Defence said last week's shipbuilding conference in Gatineau, Que., where federal officials laid out $50 billion worth of planned ship procurements over 30 years, means the politically sensitive $3.1 billion project will be further delayed.

"The (Arctic Off-Shore Patrol Ship) project is an important element of our northern strategy, and this project is being prosecuted as expeditiously as possible," said Dave Martin in an email response.

"Given its potential importance to options for a long term, sustainable, shipbuilding strategy, it is being considered for inclusion in such a program, if one is adopted by government."

The timeline for getting the project back on track is unclear and could be thrown into further disarray by a fall election, said industry officials.

The navy was recently forced to make design changes to the Arctic ships in order to keep the project within budget.

The patrol boats, which would be expected to cut through medium, one-year-old ice, will have a smaller deck gun - some defence analysts dismiss it as a "pea shooter" - as well as a commercial radar system and a less powerful engine than originally envisioned.

Martin denied the changes will make the ship less capable.

When used in concert with a planned Arctic port and the high-tech synthetic-aperture Radarsat II satellite, coverage of the far North will improve, he said.

The ships are "just one of the pieces required to make this exercise of sovereignty effective," Martin added...

Meanwhile more Arctic posturing by the prime minister:

Harper to attend Arctic sovereignty exercise

Another excerpt from the August 1 post:

...
[By the way, all the "Arctic sovereignty" hoo-hah is nonsense--the end of an earlier post:
...
The Harper government's insistence on using the military to assert sovereignty in the North is wrongheaded, especially as no country has any claim to our land there (Hans Island aside). Some earlier posts:
"Icebreakers best bet in Arctic"
The right approach to Arctic "sovereignty"
The icebreakers we should build
"A job for the Coast Guard"
What to do with the Canadian Coast Guard?
"Military should focus on coastline, not war: Layton"]