By Nia Williams
CALGARY, Alberta, Jan 5 (Reuters) - Restrictions imposed by
British Columbia to fight the spread of COVID-19 infections
after the holiday break have disrupted work at construction
sites of a Rio Tinto hydropower project and BC
Hydro's Site C dam.
A total of five major industrial projects in remote
northwestern Canada have been affected as the provincial
government last week ordered them to stagger the return of their
workers after the Christmas holiday break.
BC Hydro's Site C dam, Rio Tinto's Kemano T2 hydropower
project, the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, TC
Energy's Coastal GasLink pipeline and the Royal Dutch
Shell-led LNG Canada project are named in the order.
The companies did not say how the slow return of workers
would impact ultimate completion dates for their projects.
Across the five projects the number of workers will ramp up
from a baseline of 1,460 to 4,080 by mid-February.
Provincial health officer Dr Bonnie Henry said a rapid
return to full operating capacity after Christmas would likely
"fuel and accelerate" the spread of COVID-19 among workers and
surrounding communities.
"While these changes will have a further impact on our
overall project schedule and cost, we understand the rationale
for the order," said David Conway, spokesman for the C$10.7
billion ($8.4 billion) Site C project on the Peace river, which
is already over budget.
Rio Tinto's Kemano T2 project, in which a second tunnel is
being built to provide hydropower to the BC Works aluminium
smelter in Kitimat, would normally have 330 workers on site but
will be limited to 280 until further notice.
Rio Tinto expects the project to resume operations when it
is authorized "to increase the number of workers onsite to
safely operate the tunnel boring machine," a company spokesman
said.
The Canadian government-owned Trans Mountain project halted
work on the pipeline expansion in December after multiple safety
issues.
Construction was meant to restart on Monday but is still
paused, although Trans Mountain did not say whether the new
COVID-19 rules had caused the delay. The 1,150-kilometer
pipeline carries crude from Alberta across British Columbia to
the coast and the order only affects one work camp in Valemount.
"We are in the final stages of our restart planning and
anticipate that we will be providing further details on restart
dates in the coming days," a Trans Mountain spokeswoman said on
Tuesday.
An LNG Canada spokesman said the slower return to work
schedule would enable the project to keep going with "seasonally
critical" work. Coastal GasLink did not immediately respond to a
request for comment.
($1 = 1.2736 Canadian dollars)
(Reporting by Nia Williams; Editing by David Gregorio)
