North Vancouver. B.C — “I now declare the keel well and truly laid,” exclaimed the Hon. Jill McKnight, Minister of Veterans Affairs and Associate Minister of National Defence, alongside Kevin Brosseau, Senior Associate Deputy Minister of National Defence and Commissioner for the Canadian Coast Guard, and Braeden Caley, MP for North Vancouver-Capilano, at Seaspan Shipyards.
On October 14, the dignitaries joined Seaspan and more than 2,500 of its employees for the ceremonial keel laying event for the Canadian Coast Guard’s future CCGS Imnaryuaq — the biggest polar icebreaker ever designed and built in Canada, for Canada.
To begin the ceremony, Tsitsáyxemaat Rebecca Duncan, and Chamiya Janis Campbell brushed the ship’s keel with cedar boughs and sang a blessing song as part of the sacred, traditional Coast Salish cleansing and purification ceremony. As explained by Sekyu Siyam’ Chief Ian Campell, the intention is to brush away negativity, clear unwanted energy, provide protection and invite balance and good health.
For the keel laying, two coins designed by Indigenous artists from the Squamish and Inuit nations were selected, including a commemorative coin from the Royal Canadian Mint chosen by the Canadian Coast Guard (CCG). Featuring powerful imagery, the designs on the coins signify protection of the vessel from both sky and sea standing for vigilance, resilience and a shared commitment to seeing every voyage through safely.
A significant milestone in a ship’s construction, the coins were placed near the hull of the heavy polar icebreaker by Hitam Treadwell, Rigger Chargehand at Seaspan’s Vancouver Shipyards, and Jeff Neilson, Acting Senior Director Vessel Procurement, Engineering Services, CCG, where they will remain for the duration of the ship’s life, bringing good luck to the builders and all those who sail on the vessel in the decades to come.
This milestone builds on the official start of construction for the future CCGS Imnaryuaq in April 2025, marked by the cutting of steel for the vessel’s first polar block. Less than two years later, the vessel is taking shape at an accelerating pace, bringing Canada one step closer to welcoming its next heavy polar icebreaker in the early 2030s.
The future CCGS Imnaryuaq is incredibly complex, designed to operate self-sufficiently in the high-Arctic year-round. Once delivered, it will play a critical role in enabling the Canadian Coast Guard to transit and operate in more than 162,000km of Arctic coastline. As one of the only Polar Class 2 vessels in the world, it will be able to operate farther north, in more difficult ice conditions and for longer periods than any icebreaker in Canada to date, further supporting Canada’s Arctic sovereignty.
CCGS Imnaryuaq is the seventh ship to be designed and built by Seaspan under the National Shipbuilding Strategy (NSS). It will also be the fifth Polar Class vessel to be built for the CCG, and one of up to 21 icebreaking vessels overall that Seaspan is constructing.
(Seaspan images of keel ceremony and rendering of polar icebreaker)