KAWARTHA LAKES- A bankrupt UK company is being used to plow some roads and more in the City of Kawartha Lakes.
Carillion is used for road closures and some plowing in the City. An email obtained by Kawartha 411 shows Bryan Robinson, P.Eng.Director of Public Works with the City warning councillors of the bankruptcy.
“Please be aware that Carillion PLC, who is under contract to maintain provincial highways including Hwy 7 and Hwy 35 has been forced into bankruptcy. I am unaware of the impact to road operations maintenance at this time. I will pass along information as I receive it.”
The email went on to say “Carillion does not perform any winter maintenance work on CKL assumed, so only the MTO highways will be impacted by this news.”
Carillon is one of the U.K.’s largest construction firms. They filed for liquidation on Monday. The company employs around 50,000 people worldwide, including 6,000 in Canada.
The company is involved in the construction of several big projects in Canada, including road building in Alberta and Ontario and the construction of hospitals and mental health facilities and it has several major long-term maintenance contracts for highways and medical facilities across Canada.
Officials say the City won’t be impacted if the Canadian branch also does bankrupt.
“The MTO uses Carillion for the roads that they are responsible for maintaining within the City of Kawartha Lakes and we haven’t received any updates from them on their plans at this time. The City doesn’t use Carillion for any of the roads that we maintain so there we won’t any impact on City maintained roads if they do go bankrupt.” Ashley Webster, CKL Communications told Kawartha 411.
This evening the MTO said that operations will not be impacted… for now. “Good news for now.” said a second email sent to council, from Robinson. “The MTO is confirming the Carillion bankruptcy will not impact winter maintenance on local MTO highways at this time. If there are any changes to this, we will keep everyone informed as we become aware.”
