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Calgary-based AltaGas says cutting 70 workers will save $7M a year

The Douglas Channel, the proposed shipping route for oil tanker ships in the Enbridge Northern Gateway Project, just south of Kitmat, B.C., is pictured on Jan. 10, 2012.
The Douglas Channel, the proposed shipping route for oil tanker ships in the Enbridge Northern Gateway Project, just south of Kitmat, B.C., is pictured on Jan. 10, 2012. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

Calgary-based power and natural gas supplier AltaGas Ltd. says it has reduced its workforce by about 70 workers.

It said the job cuts implemented in June would result in a $7-million-restructuring charge on its second-quarter earnings. The reduction of its non-utility workforce is expected to result in savings of about $7-million per year.

The company listed 1,753 employees at the end of 2015 in a regulatory filing, with 1,056 considered utility workers and 697 in gas, power and corporate roles.

AltaGas (TSX:ALA) and its joint-venture partners have recently halted work on two proposed liquefied natural gas projects in northern British Columbia, citing poor global LNG markets.

The partners suspended work on the Triton project designed to export about 2.3-million tonnes of LNG a year to Asia last year, while their Douglas Channel project, designed as a 550,000-tonne-per-year floating LNG project near Kitimat, B.C., was halted in February.

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READ MORE: AltaGas halts development of Douglas Channel LNG amid global supply glut

AltaGas reported that adjusted earnings in the three months ended June 30 rose 43 per cent to $153 million from the same quarter of 2015, mainly due to its purchase last November of three natural gas-fired power plants in northern California for US$642 million.

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