A team of 20 is hunkered down in the Loft building at Vancouver Shipyards crafting final details in the bid for billions of dollars worth of federal shipbuilding work.
With just over a week to go - the deadline is July 7 at 2 p.m. - team members are putting together documents expected to total 35,000 pages.
Details are top secret. Jonathan Whitworth, chief executive of Seaspan, owner of Victoria Shipyards, Vancouver Shipyards and Vancouver Drydock, is nervous even talking about bid preparation.
"I want to make sure that B.C. as a province realizes that we are expending an enormous amount of time, energy and money on it. But I also don't want to give out anything that will be used against us."
North Vancouver-based Seaspan is competing against three shortlisted companies for two packages, worth a total of $33 billion, to build large vessels under the National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy.
Seaspan and Irving Shipbuilding, of Halifax, are focused on the existing deadline. But Davie Yards, of Levis, Que., and Upper Lakes Marine and Industrial with a shipyard in St. Catharines, Ont., are seeking a bid extension to Sept. 12. As for why those companies asked for the same date, John Dewar, Upper Lakes vice-president of strategic services, will only say "you have to draw your own conclusions on that."
Extension requests are normal and this one is only for a "minimal amount of time," Dewar said. Without it, "there wouldn't be any competition," assuming two bidders will meet federal standards, he said.
Marie-Christine StPierre, spokeswoman for Davie, which is in creditor protection, said in an email: "If the extension is not granted, Davie will not be able to submit a valid bid for NSPS."
Seaspan's team started working on the bid in November. When the request for proposals came out Feb. 7, it shifted into high gear, Whitworth said. "There's an incredible amount of buzz and energy both in the shipyard and in the office."
Team members, led by John Shaw, Seaspan's vicepresident of program management, begin working at 6 a.m., finishing between 7 p.m. and midnight, and are busy on weekends as well.
"Those 20 people are absolutely dedicated to one thing and one thing only - the winning bid for the NSPS," Whitworth said.
"I don't have to mandate or demand or ask anybody to do this. Every person that is on that team is doing this of their own free will because they realize how important it is, and what it takes to get a successful bid."
The team is made up of Seaspan staff and project partners. Some have moved into the hotel at nearby Lonsdale Quay. Four Victoria Shipyards managers are in Vancouver for the job.
A traditional process requires companies to address the cost to build what is wanted. "This RFP (request for proposal) is completely different. It doesn't even ask for pricing on the vessels. Those discussions will come later," Whitworth said.
"The RFP bid is really an exercise of proving to the federal government that you have the infrastructure, the process and the people to build multibillion projects over a 30-year project."
Whitworth added: "I can't give you facts because ... I'm competing against three other guys that are trying to do the same thing."
Bid preparation is costing millions, he said. "We don't get reimbursed for any of this. Win or lose. That's the cost to play the game."
Seaspan said it will spend $150 million in capital improvements at its shipyards. Seaspan in Canada has won big federal contracts before but has never won anything, "even remotely close," to the scope of this work, Whitworth said.
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