![\"Shipbuilding](\"https:\/\/i.cbc.ca\/1.2532830.1504736764!\/cpImage\/httpImage\/image.jpg_gen\/derivatives\/original_620\/shipbuilding-deal-20130307-topix.jpg\")
<\/p>\nA decision on which off-the-shelf design will be purchased for the navy’s new frigates is being delayed until next year, the Public Services and Procurement Department said Wednesday.<\/p>\n
The Liberal government’s request for proposals is being amended, although officials in charge of the $60-billion program said the further delay is not related to the pushback they have received from some bidders and even foreign governments.<\/p>\n
The new deadline for proposals from the 12 prequalified companies is expected to be in November, almost seven months beyond\u00a0the date set when the federal government launched the competition last year.<\/p>\n
It will take the government until the late winter or early spring to decide on a winner.<\/p>\n
Lisa Campbell, assistant deputy minister of defence and marine procurement, said the delay will not affect the overall timeline for the program.<\/p>\n
“It’s not going to affect ship construction, which is still planned to start in the early 2020s,” Campbell told CBC News in an interview.<\/p>\n
For months, uncertainty has hung over the Liberal government’s plan to buy 15 new surface combat vessels over the next two decades.<\/p>\n
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Technicians work on a hull at Halifax Shipyard in Halifax in March 2013. The government says it still expects to begin building new ships in ‘in the early 2020s.’ (Andrew Vaughan\/Canadian Press)<\/p>\n
At one point last spring, public works officials and the warship\u00a0prime contractor, Irving Shipbuilding of Halifax, were warned the government’s request for proposal needed a major overhaul.<\/p>\n
According to documents obtained by CBC News in June, an unidentified competitor said the procurement plan was more complex than initially advertised and needed to be rewritten.<\/p>\n
Some of the bidders complained about tight timelines.<\/p>\n