Identity area
Type of entity
Authorized form of name
Parallel form(s) of name
TCPL
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
History
TransCanada Pipe Lines Ltd., one of North America's leading transporters and marketers of natural gas, was incorporated by an Act of Parliament in 1951. In 1954, Liberal Minister of Trade and Commerce, C.D. Howe, believing that a pipeline from Alberta to Central Canada was a national necessity, assembled a private syndicate of Canadians and Americans to create TCPL. Construction of the pipeline began in 1955, but in 1956 a major debate ensued in Parliament, with opposition charges that Howe's plan was a sell-out to Americans. The bill to authorize the pipeline passed only after the government enforced closure. The high pressure natural gas pipeline, which runs from Alberta to Quebec, was completed in 1958. TCPL became a principally Canadian-owned company. Its subsidiary, Western Gas Marketing Ltd., administers its gas marketing operations. The head office was moved from Toronto to Calgary in 1990. For further information see Promise of the Pipeline / Peter C. Newman. -- Calgary, the Company, 1993.