Morning. In focus today, we’re throwing tomatoes, plunging the depths of the sea and casting a light on Canadian bank stocks.

Automaking: Canada is on track for increased low-tariff Chinese EV imports.

Labour: Unifor sets July 10 deadline for tentative agreement with Ford as auto talks kick off.

Telecoms: BCE employees fired over “swipe and go” office attendance sue for compensation.

Krexit: British PM Keir Starmer says he will resign by September.

Prime Minister Mark Carney climbs into a submarine during a tour of the Hanwha Ocean Shipyard in South Korea last October. Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press

Canada’s purchase of 12 new submarines will be one of the biggest defence procurements in the country’s history, inciting a fierce competition between bidders.

Both South Korea’s Hanwha and Germany’s ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems have promised thousands of new jobs and extensive local economic spinoff benefits through their bids for the 12-vessel submarine contract.

The federal government expects to announce its decision by the end of the month – “plus or minus a couple of days,” secretary of state for defence procurement Stephen Fuhr said.

That means the announcement will land just ahead of the next big NATO alliance summit, set to begin on July 7 in Turkey.

As innovation reporter Pippa Norman writes, it’s a decision with extensive implications for Canadian industry, government, the Royal Canadian Navy and the country’s strategic alliances.