Feasibility of Budget for Acquisition of Two Joint Support Ships

Abstract

The mandate of the Parliamentary Budget Officer is to provide independent analysis to Parliament on the state of the nation's finances, the government's estimates, and trends in the Canadian economy, and, upon request from a committee or parliamentarian, to estimate the financial cost of any proposal for matters over which Parliament has jurisdiction. The PBO received requests from the Member from St John's East and the Member from Scarborough-Guildwood to undertake an independent cost assessment of the Joint Support Ship project. This report assesses the feasibility of replacing Canada's current Auxiliary Oiler Replenishment ships with two Joint Support Ships within the allocated funding envelope. The cost estimates and observations presented in this report represent a preliminary set of data for discussion and may change subject to the provision of detailed financial and non-financial data to the Parliamentary Budget Officer by the Department of National Defence, Public Works, and Government Services Canada, and the shipyards. The cost estimates included reflect a point-in-time set of observations based on limited and high-level data obtained from a variety of sources. These high-level cost estimates and observations are neither to be viewed as conclusions in relation to the policy merits of the legislation nor as a view to future costs.