Sunday, December 5, 2021

New Year, New Opportunities for Local 63 Members

CLAC-signatory companies had a busy 2021, and 2022 looks to continue that trend with exciting projects slated through this year and beyond

The winter season has arrived, and with it a new year and new opportunities for Local 63 members. Here’s a brief rundown on what’s happening across the province.

Calgary and southern Alberta – Companies like Flatiron Constructors Canada Limited, Ledcor Group, PCL Builders Inc., Technical Workforce Inc., and others are all busy with projects in the commercial, institutional, and heavy civil sectors. In addition, Borea Construction ULC and PCL Builders Inc. and PCL Energy Inc. are also busy in the renewable energy sector by building wind projects as well as solar projects.

The Calgary market figures to continue to be busy for the next several years, with large projects like the Green Line LRT, new Calgary Event Centre, work on completing the Ring Road as well as renewable energy projects across southern Alberta. CLAC-signatory companies are in line to get a good share of this and other work.

Greater Edmonton area – WorleyCord Energy Solutions Ltd. is currently on site at IPL in Fort Saskatchewan doing commissioning work on the dehydrogenation plant side. They also are keeping busy expanding the tank farms at Gibson Energy’s Hardisty terminal. Additionally, they have work at the Trans Mountain Edmonton Terminal where they are adding four new storage tanks, four new pumps, connecting infrastructure, and a new substation. This expansion will bring the total number of tanks at the terminal to 39, with a total capacity of nine million barrels.

PCL Energy will start ramping up at the Cascade Power Project in Edson soon, a 900 megawatt combined cycle power generation facility, which when completed will have the capacity to supply over eight percent of the province’s average electricity demand. They are also on site at Genesee working on the coal-to-gas conversion project there, as well as at the E. L. Smith Solar Farm, which will generate renewable energy to power the waste water treatment facility.

Golderado Contracting Corp. is steadily working on the new LRT line in Edmonton, and we continue to have a number of CLAC-signatory contractors involved in long term maintenance work at DOW, Shell, Agrium, Suncor, IOL, IPL, and MEGlobal.

Wood Buffalo area – The region continues to build momentum with strength in the oil market, and the COVID-19 pandemic is in better control with increased vaccinations and testing. Labour supply is tight and the projections are for it to continue to get tighter with increasing demand in the region competing with other regions of strength across the country. The ability to attract employees to Alberta from other provinces continues to be challenging as several other provinces are very busy and competing for labour.

More projects continue to come back on line in the Wood Buffalo region after the COVID drought, including mainline and in-the-fence pipeline operations south of Fort McMurray involving several CLAC-signatory employers and several hundred Local 63 members. IOL, Kearl, and Suncor have continued to increase manpower on several midsize projects involving Local 63 members, while planning continues for several major shutdowns at several project sites in the spring. Wage reviews and collective agreement renewals are in process with many CLAC-signatory employers as scheduled in anticipation of a few busy years ahead.

Pipeline – Local 63 has over a thousand pipeliners working on the Trans Mountain Expansion Project with Midwest Pipelines Inc. on Spread 1 and Spread 2. Macro Pipelines and Ledcor Pipelines will be executing jobs throughout Alberta, totalling around 800 members on various projects. The pipeline industry is extremely busy all winter, with multiple large projects throughout British Columbia and Alberta, and Local 63 membership numbering in the thousands across both provinces.

New Year, New Opportunities for Local 63 Members

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