// COMPANY DOSSIER
Irving Shipbuilding Inc.
Canada's largest naval shipbuilder and the prime contractor for combatant vessels under the federal National Shipbuilding Strategy. It designs and builds warships for the Royal Canadian Navy and Canadian Coast Guard at the Halifax Shipyard, and maintains the RCN's Halifax-class frigate fleet.
📍 Halifax, Nova Scotia, CanadaEst. 1994✓ 100% first-party verified
// CLIPS FROM Irving Shipbuilding Inc.
“going into covet and I had a customer didn't pay us for uh 1.6 million dollars”
“when I worked in the industry I was never paid overtime I didn't I was never offered benefits”
“so I took on a big job at the uh at the hospital in Vancouver there's a lot of architectural form work”
“for many many years the wage differential is insane going from Alberta to to the east coast”
“you're seeing less people having kids so that's that's number one issue”
“he said would you be uh interested in the the Carpenters that you found would you want to invoice us”
“there was an opportunity there where I had a few buddies that were framing houses out of Surrey BC”
“a lot of people in the trades are thinking about starting their own business”
“a lot of companies weren't paying their people over time”
// LESSONS FROM Irving Shipbuilding Inc.
Stay strictly within your proven service lane after bankruptcy — don't vertically integrate until your capital and team can carry it.
A back-office partnership (payrolling platform) can unlock 500% organic growth by enabling new verticals and cross-border compliance without building internal infrastructure.
Wage parity — paying leased staff the same rate as the client's direct hires — prevents on-site crew infighting and protects project productivity.
Send paycheck stubs on Thursday so any errors can be resolved before Friday EFT payment — a simple operational habit that protects worker trust.
Labour leasing offloads WCB claims, wrongful dismissal risk, and employer health tax liability from the GC onto the staffing firm — freeing the client to focus on delivery.
Payrolling with 30-60-75 day payment terms solves cash-flow gaps that keep smaller contractors from taking on large-project work.
// SELECTED PROJECTS
Arctic and Offshore Patrol Ships (Harry DeWolf class)
CompletedPrime contractor / builder · CAD $2.3 billion (build contract for six RCN ships)
All six AOPS for the Royal Canadian Navy have been delivered; construction of two custom AOPS variants for the Canadian Coast Guard is underway. Build-contract value confirmed via J.D. Irving newsroom (https://www.jdirving.com/en/newsroom/government-of-canada--irving-shipbuilding-mark-signing-of-$2.3b-aops-build-contract/).
River-class destroyers (Canadian Surface Combatant)
In progressPrime contractor / builder (with Lockheed Martin Canada and BAE Systems on the Type 26-based design)
Freshness-checked Jan 2026: 15-ship program in early construction. Irving lifted and flipped the first structural unit for the lead ship; keel-laying of the lead ship expected later in 2026; first delivery slated for the early 2030s. The vessels replace the RCN's Iroquois-class destroyers and Halifax-class frigates. Company's own June 2025 page describes 'commencement of full rate production' (https://shipsforcanada.ca/our-stories/irving-shipbuilding-celebrates-progress-under-the-national-shipbuilding-strategy).
Halifax-class frigate in-service support / modernization
In progressMaintenance / docking contractor
Irving maintains the RCN's Halifax-class frigates through modernization and docking work while the fleet transitions to the River-class destroyers.
// KEY PEOPLE
// NOTABLE
Irving Shipbuilding was selected in 2011 as Canada's prime contractor for combat vessels under the National Shipbuilding Strategy, the largest naval procurement in Canadian history.
SOURCE ▸Irving Shipbuilding is a subsidiary of J.D. Irving, Limited and operates the Halifax Shipyard along Halifax Harbour at 3099 Barrington Street, Halifax, Nova Scotia.
SOURCE ▸