OTTAWA, May 22 (Xinhua) -- Canada is to earmark 15.7 billion Canadian dollars (about 11.7 billion U.S. dollars) to construct 18 guard ships for the Canadian Coast Guard fleet, according to Canadian Prime Minister's Office on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the Canadian government is to allocate an additional 351 million Canadian dollars (about 261 million U.S. dollars) to improve capacity of the coast guard management.
The 15.7 billion figure is an early estimate of the cost for construction, support, infrastructure, project management and cost overruns, or contingency funding.
The costs of each ship will be announced after contract negotiations have been completed.
The Canadian Coast Guard is responsible for a number of services, including search and rescue, environmental response, ice breaking, ocean science, and maintaining a massive navigation and communication system.
