01 October 2025, 09:07
medvedAlberta premier blames Ottawa for Imperial Oil job cuts, but experts say it's a globa
ah ah ... so funny to see the conservatives calling for the fed building a private pipeline ... hilarious to say the least ... where is the private money on it ...
why she is not investing in it if she believes in it ...
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada...s-reaction-1.7647315Alberta premier blames Ottawa for Imperial Oil job cuts, but experts say it's a global trend
Calgary-based company says cuts are part of broader restructuring plan
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says Imperial Oil's plan to lay off roughly 20 per cent of its workforce by 2027 is "very disappointing," laying the blame on Ottawa and reinforcing the need to build pipelines.
"The industry for the last 10 years has been hampered and hobbled by federal government decisions," Smith said Tuesday.
"If we can realize the aspiration of building our pipelines north, south, east and west, doubling our production, then there's a lot of opportunity for people to be able to get reemployed in this sector."
Calgary-based Imperial said Monday the cuts are part of a broader restructuring plan and would save the company about $150 million annually.
Approximately 900 jobs, most of which are in Calgary, will be lost.
"This is what happens when you have uncertainty," Smith said. "And this is part of the reason why we have to work very quickly to get to a resolution with Ottawa so that we can start building [pipelines] again."
Imperial Oil chairman John Whelan said in a statement the restructuring and layoffs will ensure the company continues to deliver returns and value for shareholders.
Imperial Oil to cut 900 jobs, will mostly leave Calgary
"We recognize the considerable impact this restructuring will have on our employees and their families," Whelan said. "We are deeply committed to supporting our employees through this transition."
In a news release, Imperial said it is leveraging technology and its relationship with its major shareholder, Exxon Mobil, to continue to meet or exceed production targets.
The company also said part of the restructuring will see Imperial relocate most of the remaining Calgary positions to the Strathcona Refinery in Edmonton in late 2028.
While Smith points the finger at Ottawa, Alberta NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi lays the blame on the UCP government.
"We've got a government that is pandering to separatists, that is scaring away domestic and foreign investment," he told CBC News.
"We now have the second … highest unemployment rate after Newfoundland in the country at a time where the energy sector is not really under threat from tariffs," Nenshi said.
"What we're really seeing here is a change and shift in the work and Alberta being left on the outside, and that is directly due to Danielle Smith and the UCP's policies, I believe."
Canada's energy minister, Tim Hodgson, also said he's "deeply disappointed" with Imperial Oil's planned job cuts.
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He said he's working to understand what went into the company's decision and the government will explore ways to support the workers losing their jobs.
"These are skilled, dedicated people who have greatly contributed to Alberta's energy sector and Canada's economy, and my thoughts are with them and their families as they receive this difficult news," he said on social media Tuesday.
In August, Imperial reported $11.23 billion in total revenue and other income during the second quarter, down from $13.38 billion in the same quarter a year earlier.
Hodgson said it's his mission to make sure energy companies like Imperial stay prosperous as the government works to make Canada an "energy superpower."
Oil company layoffs a global trend: experts
Top U.S. oil major Exxon Mobil announced broader cuts on Tuesday, with plans to lay off 2,000 workers globally — about half of which are accounted for in the Imperial Oil layoffs.
Heather Exner-Pirot, director of energy, natural resources and environment at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute in Ottawa, says this latest announcement is part of a global trend.
"This is obviously extremely painful for Calgary and extremely painful for Canada, but this is part of a much broader … series of layoffs," she said.
Several major energy companies, including Chevron and ConocoPhillips, have announced thousands of job cuts in the past year to rein in costs while they contend with lower profits in the face of a worldwide slump in crude oil prices and strong competition from the OPEC+ group of oil producers.
Another Calgary-based company, Cenovus Energy Inc., confirmed layoffs in May, while Suncor Energy Inc. cut about 1,500 staff in a streamlining push in 2023.
"What Exxon and Imperial are doing is trying to be the lowest cost barrel in the oilsands and also globally competitive, and so they aren't shutting in production. They have no intention of producing less oil," Exner-Pirot explained, calling the layoffs a "normal restructuring" from the corporation's perspective.
"That means the royalties keep coming in. It means the sector is healthy. It means Imperial stays healthy."
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Charles St-Arnaud, chief economist with Alberta Central, says the oil and gas industry is no longer what it was in 2014, pre-boom, and so the number of people employed in the sector has also been impacted.
"The Canadian oil and gas sector doesn't live in [a] vacuum ... without being influenced by what's happening around the world. It's not just in Canada that investment in the industry is weak. We're seeing that around the world," he said.
"The name of the game for the past decade has been how to drive efficiency out of current operations, and that's what we've seen. [Companies have] been cutting costs and those job losses go into that vein.
"It's really that drive to efficiency that is reducing the head count. How can you extract the same barrel at a lower cost?"
St-Arnaud says there's a need to start looking at the oil and gas sector with "a different mindset," understanding that it's a mature industry now.
"It's no longer what I would call the startup phase of the late 2000s, early 2010s, where companies were building massive operations, thinking huge amounts of money and they were not necessarily driven by how much it's gonna cost," he said.
"But now [in the] mature phase, you need to start thinking about the cost. How do you improve your profitability when you're at that kind of mature phase of your development? And that's really where I see the Canadian oil industry being at the moment."