Canadian Pacific Railway is planning to relocate much of its head office from
downtown Calgary, union officials and a source close to the company said,
under a restructuring plan that its new chief executive will detail to investors
in early December.
Chief Executive Hunter Harrison told U.S. union leaders and a Canadian union
president that Canada's second-biggest railroad will move employees out of its
glass-towered headquarters as part of an ambitious cost-cutting plan.
"They're moving the headquarters to Ogden, which just makes sense," said
Bill Brehl, president of the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference Maintenance of
Way union.
"We're a railroad. What were we doing downtown hanging out with the oil
barons? Our place is to be in a rail yard," said Brehl, who was told of the plan
by Harrison.
Brehl said the company will rebuild the century-old Ogden yard, constructing
offices there. CP decided last year to close the Ogden repair shop,
constructed in 1912 on land south east of Calgary's city center. It moved
locomotive and train car repair elsewhere.
As part of the cost-cutting plan, Harrison told analysts and investors last
month that 5 to 10 percent of the company's headcount would be eliminated,
with a focus on management positions and jobs in the Calgary headquarters.
CP had about 14,500 employees at the end of the third quarter.