Budget officer estimates Liberals' heavy icebreaker plan to cost $7.25B

The Liberal government’s plan to build two icebreakers for the Canadian Coast Guard could cost as much as $7.25 billion, the country’s Parliamentary Budget Office said today.

The plan to construct the vessels was unveiled last May, ahead of last summer’s federal election.

The decision was intended to fulfil a promise made more than a dozen years ago by the former Conservative government to build one polar-class icebreaker at Seaspan Shipyards in Vancouver.

The Liberals upped the ante and promised to build a second vessel at Davie Shipbuilding in Levis, Que., once the company was formally admitted to the National