At least 18 workers laid off from Kinder Morgan worksite after pipeline spending cuts

At least 18people have lost their jobs at the Trans Mountain pipeline work sitesin B.C., three weeks after Kinder Morgan stopped non-essential spending on the expansion project.

Ledcorsaid affected staff were informed of their "reassignment" on Monday.

"KLTP[Kiewit-Ledcor Trans Mountain Partnership] has been looking at all activities and our staffing to determine what is essential at this time and looking at opportunities to reassign non-essential staff and resources to other Kiewit and Ledcor projects," read an emailed statement from the construction group.

Ledcorsaid it made thepersonnel decision late last week.

It did not specify how many people lost their jobs, but a representative from the union of some of the workersconfirmed at least 18 of its members were affected.

"The uncertainty that, quite frankly, the government has created on the project has trickled down into people's lives," said Ryan Bruce with the Christian Labour Association of Canada.

"A project like Trans Mountain is along-term project ...it has a lot of appeal to workers," he continued. "So [layoffs are]unsettling and creates a lot of disruption."

Bruce said the workers may be rehired by the company to work on another project.

Kinder Morgan announcedKiewit-Ledcoras a "major" contractor for the Lower Mainland portion of the project last June.

Contractors were brought in to build the section of the pipeline betweenLangley, B.C., andBurnaby, B.C. the last 35 kilometres of the expansion.

Workers were also assigned tothe areas runningthrough Burnaby Mountain, as well as tothe Burnaby, Sumas and Westridge Marine terminals.

Kinder Morgan said it would be stopping all non-essentialspending for the Trans Mountain pipeline project on April 8. The company said the decision was due to ongoing opposition from the B.C. government and its need to protect its own shareholders.

West Coast opponents said the move threw the future of the project into doubt. Others saidit was a blowfor Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, whosegovernmentgranted the projectfederal approvalin 2016.

Kinder Morgan hasgiven Ottawauntil May 31 to provide assurancethat the expansion will be finished.

The company has to date spent about $1.1 billion on the $7.4-billion project, which will twin the existing pipeline between Edmonton and Burnaby.

With files from Eric Rankin