Heddle Shipyards in Port Weller is set to get even busier.
The Federal government announcing plans to build a pair a polar icebreakers for the Canadian Coast Guard.
Components for one of those ships will be made at the dry docks in Port Weller thanks to a partnership with Seaspan Shipyards in Vancouver.
Shaun Padulo, President of Heddle Shipyards, says "We will be manufacturing and fabricating significant parts of this vessel and shipping them out to Vancouver via truck and rail."
Padulo adds that this is a big step in the growth of the company "It is going to give us a taste and it's going to allow us to expand and invest in shipbuilding equipment and shipbuilding resources like personnel. That is only going to make us stronger for the other programs that are coming up over the next decade."
Seaspan Shipyards and Quebec-based Chantier Davie will each build a new heavy icebreaker for the coast guard over the next 10 years. One of the contracts was earlier awarded to Seaspan in 2011, but lost the work as schedules were not met and costs escalated.