10 - Friday, June 5, 1987 - North Shore News

GOVERNPAENT MUST DECIDE
Versatile set

to get Polar 8 |

A SPOKESMAN for a new partnership put together last
week to bring the $325 million Polar Class 8 icebreaker
contract to the West Coast has announced that he believes
Versatile Pacific Shipyards Inc. has now met all the pre-
conditions of the contract laid out by the federal governm-

ent.

Sandwell Swan Wooster Inc.
president Alan Pyatt said Tuesday
his company had formed Polar
Icebreaker Constructors with Ver-
satile to consolidate the manage-
ment and technical shipbuilding
expertise of both companies and
seek the contract as joint prime
contractors in order to convince
the federal government to finalize
the award of the Polar 8.

**We believe that ali the main
conditions have been met,’’ Pyatt
said. ‘‘Now it’s up to the gov-
ernment.” .

The last major obstacle faced by
Versatile in its attempt to land the
contract was removed: jiast week
when the Hees International Corp.
of Toronto agreed to assume the
shipyard’s parent Versatile Corp.’s
$90 million worth of secured debt.

Earlier in May, Versatile Pacific
satisfied another of the governm-
ent’s. main pre-conditions by an-
nouncing its intention to negotiate
the Polar 8 design with the Polar
Icebreaker. Canadian . Design
Group, a Western Canadian con-
sortium headed by Sandwell Swan
Wooster. : .

The government announced its
intention March 2 to negotiate the
‘icebreaker contract with Versatile
subject to the corporation’s
meeting certain technical and fi-

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News Reporter

nancial requirements.

In addition to ensuring Versatile
prove its technical and financial
capability to build the icebreaker,
the government’s letter of intent
requires the corporation post bon-
ding of $100 million when con-
struction begins on the icebreaker.
Design work costing no more than
$8 million must also be completed
within nine months of the contract
being signed.

Pyatt said Sandwell’s vice-presi-
dent Dougal Barron was currently
meeting with government officials
in Ottawa, ‘‘and we are hopeful
that a decision (on the Polar 8) will
be made soon.”’ :

The joint venture between Ver-
satile and Sandwell Swan Wooster
is thus far limited to the Polar 8
contract. . ;

Marine Workers and_ Boiler-
makers Industrial Union president
John Fitzpatrick, whose union

represents the largest portion of.

tradesmen employed at Versatile,
said local MPs ‘‘should be poun-
ding the tables in Ottawa‘to put
pressure on the government to give
us the Polar 8 and let us get on
with the bloody job.””

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