TransCanada Corporation, the company behind the controversial Keystone XL and Energy East pipelines, confirmed Tuesday morning that it is laying off 100 full-time staff and 85 contractors in its major projects office.
Spokesperson Mark Cooper said the cuts are part of a restructuring “designed to ensure we move forward with our $46-billion capital growth plan in a way that meets the needs of our customers, while allowing TransCanada to remain competitive and deliver incremental value for our shareholders.”
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TransCanada recently delayed the Energy East project’s start date to 2020, and has been unable to secure a presidential permit for Keystone XL. But Cooper told the Herald the layoffs weren’t related to any specific project.
“Certainly, shifting timelines for some of our projects is one of the factors we considered when developing a new model for how we develop our projects. However, that is not the main driver here,” he said in an email.
Last week, the Canadian Association of Oilwell Drilling Contractors estimated the sector had lost 25,110 of the 49,950 jobs it created in 2014.
