[1] Founded in 1889, it is today a wholly owned subsidiary of Irving Shipbuilding Inc. and is that company's largest ship construction and repair facility.

[5][6] From the early 1950s to the mid-1960s the shipyard won contracts with the Royal Canadian Navy to construct four destroyers as part of the RCN's post-war fleet modernization program.

In 1978 the parent company Hawker Siddeley was placed in receivership and the shipyard's assets were held by the primary creditor, the Government of Nova Scotia.

A consortium named Halifax Industries Limited was organized and reached an agreement with the provincial government to operate the shipyard.

In 1985 the shipyard declared bankruptcy and was purchased by a group of Nova Scotia investors, led by former Saint John Shipbuilding president Andy McArthur, who organized it as Halifax-Dartmouth Industries Limited (HDIL).

In 1992, Quebec-based engineering firm SNC-Lavalin was the successful bidder for the Maritime Coastal Defence Vessel Project which would build what is today known as the Kingston class.

Like all Canadian shipyards, Halifax Shipyard Limited underwent a dramatic slowdown in new construction and refit business during the late 1990s and throughout the 2000s due to changes in Government of Canada tax and tariff policies for ship owners, as well as a reduction in federal government construction for warships, icebreakers, ferries and scientific vessels.

The competing Davie Yards Incorporated in Lauzon, Quebec experienced similar financial difficulty and spent much of the decade in mothball status.

This left Halifax Shipyard Limited as the largest full-service shipyard left on Canada's Atlantic coast and the flagship facility for Irving Shipbuilding Inc. A handful of new-build contracts for oil rig supply vessels, a cruise ship, as well as repair and maintenance contracts for Royal Canadian Navy warships and Canadian Coast Guard icebreakers and scientific vessels, public and privately owned ferries, commercial ships, and oil rigs has kept Halifax Shipyard Limited moderately busy in recent years.

In September 2009 Irving Shipbuilding was awarded a contract to build the Hero-class patrol vessel project for the Canadian Coast Guard.