Coastal GasLink is joining other large industries in trimming its workforce to dampen the possibility of the COVID-19 virus from spreading.
It’s also postponing site tours and the planned opening event of its 7 Mile accommodation facility south of Burns Lake. That event had been scheduled for the end of March.
“We’ll have smaller crews work along the 670 km route and ensuring that workers and nearby communities are safe through our COVID-19 protection measures,” the company said in a release this week.
“This includes having workers who are considered non-essential to working along the route at this time work from home instead.”
In offices and in the field, only onsite workers in critical operations, including construction, will be working.
The company and its contractors are also in contact with health authorities.
As it is, with the onset of spring breakup, Coastal GasLink expected a “significantly slighter workforce to be onsite to perform critical tasks, such as ensuring environmental conditions are met, before resuming clearing and beginning pipe installation this summer.”
Meanwhile, LNG Canada is cutting its Kitimat-based gas liquefaction plant workforce by half, affecting as many as 750 workers.
Chartered aircraft flying out workers have been leaving regularly from the Northwest Regional Airport at Terrace.