Province helping troubled Carillion to maintain provincial highways

by Morinville News Staff

The Alberta government announced Wednesday it is making $8.9 million available to help Carillion Canada, the company responsible for roughly 43 per cent of the provincial highway network, continue its highway maintenance operation in the province.

Carillion, a UK construction giant ran into financial troubles in January this year. The province says the nearly $9 milion in funding will allow Carillion “continue its highway maintenance operations in Alberta, pay its employees and keep doing business with suppliers.” The funding will help Carillion maintain funding until Apr. 30.

As such, the province says there will be no disruption in highway maintenance, including plowing and sanding on provincial highways maintained by the company.

“Keeping Alberta highways safe for travel year-round is our top priority,” said Brian Mason, Minister of Transportation. “This funding ensures that snowplowing, sanding and other maintenance will continue on all of our highways. It also means Carillion’s employees and suppliers will continue to be paid.”

Carillion Canada recently sought an order and stay of proceedings from the Ontario Superior Court under the Companies’ Creditor Arrangement Act following parent company Carillion PLC going into receivership.

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3 Comments

  1. I’m confused. Why the NDP would give 8.9 million dollars to a FAILING company that is going to go broke then leaving their suppliers and their employees out in the cold. Highway maintenance is not ROCKET SCIENCE!! We have plenty of Alberta contractors that have, at their ready, enough equipment to maintain all of the roads that Carillon maintains and would more likely do a better job at the same price or less!!!. Why doesn’t Mr. Mason pick up the phone and make contact with these contractors and give the business to Albertans instead of a British firm that’s going broke. It’s not logical for the NDP not to support Alberta contractors and PLEASE don’t tell me that this is a hard thing to do. If Mr. Mason needs help to do so, I’ll gladly lend him a hand or send him some phone numbers.

  2. you clearly know nothing about highway maintenance. you also dont know how to read as it was said in the article that all the other contractors dont have the man power or the fleet to take on the task. the money isnt going to the british parent company, its staying right here in canada, controlled by the lawyers at earnst and young, to pay for current operations in the province to keep the roads open for you, your family and everyone else on the road.you also have to remember that carillion holds the majority of the roads in alberta and other than maybe the rotting fleet, or whats left over of the fleet at alberta highways isnt capable of expanding its operations to fufill the needs of even a 1/3 of the highways needed to be looked after and the other companies never have had that large of a fleet to be able to come even close to that. also there is far more than just sending out a couple plow trucks to throw some sand down, theres all the other maint. thats required to make everyone safe. and it all has to be done to spec. not just half assed. yes everyone is put into a bad spot right now but at the very least couldnt you at least thank all the hard working men and women that are choosing to stay with the company to do the job when even their paycheques are threatened, everyone could choose to go elsewhere more stable but they all know the importance of keeping you safe, heck, even say thanks to carillion for not just pulling the plug and walking away cutting there losses and saying to hell with it, we are in the shit now, might as well jump the sinking ship. my 2 cents anyway

  3. Ken; this has nothing to do with the hard working people of Carillion. It is about top level poor management and the NDP’s lack of forward thinking not preparing for the inevitable (knowing that Carillion is going broke) and not making a plan B. I do know about road maintenance and to think that contractors in Alberta collectively in a short period of time couldn’t spool up to take on the underbudgeted contract of Carillion is simply ill informed. What I have seen in the last several years under Carillion’s management is poor maintenace of our road system and I’ll leave it to guess why….and this is not a result of the good people that work there. It is inevitable that this firm will not be able to continue on and being managed by lawyers at Ernst and Young (who I might say are a well known road maintenance firm) shows that the NDP’s (taxpayer’s) 8.9 million emergency fund is just an expensive band aid.

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