TRANSFORCE SEES MORE PAIN FOR WESTERN CANADA

Canada’s largest trucking company expects the Western Canadian economy will continue to weaken, spreading its pain across the country. TransForce Inc. CEO Alain Bedard said Friday that low oil and commodity prices will remain a significant drag on growth while the low Canadian dollar has so far provided only a small boost to the manufacturing sector based in Eastern Canada. “The situation in Alberta is terrible and it’s only going to get worse,” Bedard said during a conference call to discuss the company’s fourth- quarter and 2015 results. Bedard said Alberta’s market for smaller truckloads, which was the best in Canada until a year ago, has seen volume shrink 25 per cent. “Calgary is like a ghost town now,” he told analysts. The Quebec-based company expects energyrelated earnings in the province and in Texas will fall another $10 million over the coming year. Anything more than that will force it to shut operations as it did when it mothballed the oil-rig moving business in both countries, he said.