Murray Wood: Who's hot... and who's not
Every Friday, Murray Wood takes a look back at the week's news and decides who's hot... and who's not. This week's list ...
Regina’s Evraz steel plant has a major project coming its way.
Trans Mountain has announced the Regina plant will be providing more than 75 per cent of pipe for its expansion from Edmonton to the coast of British Columbia.
The agreement is contingent on Kinder Morgan’s final investment decision.
Material for the pipe will come from Evraz’s recycled metal operations in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario.
“It has been our commitment from day one to deliver benefits from this project to Canadians, and we are pleased to announce the single largest potential procurement contract to a Canadian plant and Canadian workers,” said Ian Anderson, president of Kinder Morgan Canada, in a news release Tuesday.
From the Bethune potash plant, Premier Brad Wall was pleased to hear the news.
“That pipeline’s very important for the province – we need it to go ahead,” he said. “This is huge for Evraz, I mean, 900 families employed out at Evraz in Regina so we want to make sure that pipeline goes ahead.”
“We look forward to working with Kinder Morgan on this project,” Conrad Winkler, Evraz North American president and CEO, echoed in a news release. “Our collective experience will make this one of the most technically advanced and environmentally safe pipelines in the world.”
Trans Mountain said the $7.4 billion expansion project will create direct and lasting economic benefits to Canada and communities along the pipeline corridor, including 15,000 jobs per year during construction. The Conference Board of Canada said the project will generate an estimated $46.7 billion in government revenues and 802,000 person years of employment, equal to 37,000 jobs per year during operations.
Project planning continues so the remainder of the pipe needed, in addition to other contracts, will be announced at a later date.
Trans Mountain said the next steps for the project include arranging financing and a final investment decision from Kinder Morgan. Construction is slated to begin in fall 2017.
