Canada's Top 100 Employers (2026) Magazine - Flipbook - Page 66
70
( 2026 )
SPONSOR CONTENT
Seaspan employees are buoyed by the company mission
A
board the Raptor, a
tugboat operating
out of the Port of
Vancouver, Seaspan
deckhand Nick
Waterman manages the engine
room — keeping the boat running
and ready to bring in ships
arriving with cargo from around
the world or to send them on their
way. For Waterman, a 20-year
Seaspan employee, the bigger
picture is never far from his mind.
“You’re absolutely essential,”
he says. “I do think about it in the
grander scheme. For Canada and
our relationship to Asia and the
rest of the world, we are the first
stop along the way. It’s massively
important what Seaspan does, for
the whole country and especially
the Lower Mainland.”
North Vancouver-based Seaspan
(comprised of Seaspan Shipyards
and Seaspan Marine Group) runs
commercial ferries and marine
and shipyard operations and is
also a major shipbuilder. Through
the federal government’s National
Shipbuilding Strategy, Seaspan
is delivering large, non-combat
ships for the Royal Canadian
Navy and Canadian Coast Guard,
including two joint support ships,
an offshore oceanographic science
vessel (which began sea trials in
June) and a new polar icebreaker,
the most powerful ship in the
Coast Guard’s fleet.
“We’re really proud of the
work that we do for our nation,”
says John McCarthy, CEO of
Seaspan Shipyards. “Our secret
sauce is our people, whether
in the professional ranks —
our engineers, designers and
procurement professionals — or
our skilled tradespeople.”
Seaspan has hired more than
2,800 skilled tradespeople in the
last five years to work on those
projects and doubled the size of its
apprenticeship classes, McCarthy
says.
It also invests in current
employees’ continued professional
development. Waterman says
that as he’s worked toward higher
certifications over the course of his
career, Seaspan “always stepped
up” to cover the cost of a course or
paid for him to take it.
To address the shortfall of
skilled tradespeople in Canada,
Seaspan is working with postsecondary institutions to try to fill
the pipeline for the future.
It has given $7 million in grants
in recent years to the British
Columbia Institute of Technology
for student scholarships and
trades training for high school
students, and another $5 million
to Camosun College. In February
2025, it made a $2.5-million
investment in skills training and
apprenticeships for Indigenous
Peoples in Greater Vancouver,
and in September gave $5.5
million to the YWCA Metro
Vancouver for skilled trades
training for women.
It’s massively important
what Seaspan does, for
the whole country and
especially the Lower
Mainland.
— Nick Waterman
Deckhand
Seaspan plays a vital role in revitalizing Canada’s marine sector by fostering the development of future
shipbuilders, engineers, designers and mariners.
“Our goal is to represent the
community we live in. Our
workforce should be a microcosm
of the community,” McCarthy
says. He notes that women’s
representation across both
salaried and hourly roles has
grown by 60 per cent since 2019.
The company has also seen a
200 per cent increase in visible
minorities in salaried roles and a
320 per cent jump in Indigenous
workers in salaried roles in the
same time frame.
McCarthy says Seaspan's
community commitment goes
even deeper. Looking out his
office window at the company’s
