SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
De Beers Canada is planning to layoff staff and move positions to a new support centre in Calgary next June.

De Beers Canada will continue to hire staff for its Gahcho Kue diamond mine currently under construction but a new restructuring plan will mean layoffs at its Yellowknife office, a shutdown of its Toronto head office, and a new Canadian support centre in Calgary. - photo courtesy of Mountain Province Diamonds

Tom Ormsby, De Beers Canada's head of external and corporate affairs for mining, confirmed to News/North that costs are the key driver of this long-term restructuring plan for the company's long-term operations.

"We need to consolidate our services in a way that's more efficient and more cost-effective," he said. "For us, there will be people that will be leaving certain positions at the mine to be based in Calgary and some positions from Yellowknife and Timmins to be based in Calgary because that's where their skills will be needed going forward."

Ormsby confirmed De Beers is planning to establish a Canadian support centre in Calgary and closing its corporate head office in Toronto by June 2016.

"When we move (the head office) to Calgary it'll be closer to the bulk of our operations, certainly when Gahcho Kue comes onstream," he said. "It'll also give us quicker access to Snap Lake and Gahcho Kue."

Ormsby said the number of layoffs in Yellowknife, Timmins and the Toronto office are still being finalized.

"We have to go through several steps in this process," he said. "Until we understand who's interested and available to relocate, if that's what their role is required to do, then we have to go through that process."

De Beers also held in-person information meetings with staff and industry, government and business groups last week.

One of those was with Industry, Tourism and Investment Minister David Ramsay, who said he understood De Beers' reasoning for the strategic plan.

"We shouldn't really be surprised," he said, "The world economic outlook, when it comes to mining, isn't very good."

Ramsay said low commodity prices and mining stocks such as Anglo American being hit hard were big factors for business decisions like the one being made by De Beers Canada.

"Those realities, whether we like it or not, we're not able to influence those type of things," he said. "They're happening and we're not immune to it at all."

Ultimately, Ormsby said the vast majority of De Beers Canada employees would not be impacted by the company's restructuring plans despite moving its head office three provinces over.

"The impact is mainly on the support side of our structure, not in the mining or processing side," he said. "An easy way to think about it is anyone who has an office-type job."

Ormsby also emphasized that De Beers Canada was still in a hiring phase with two of its mining projects in the territory, Snap Lake and Gahcho Kue.

"There will be several hundred positions there but we still have to hire some critical positions at Snap Lake as well," he said.

However, even Ormsby is one of those people being affected by this restructuring plan.

"I, like everyone else will go through the process of looking at what that role will be, what is my personal circumstance and I'll make that decision based on that and the opportunity in front of me," he said. "But yes, I am in that situation."

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