Laird Electric secures $45 million of new projects in the Alberta oil sands

TSX: CUQ

CALGARY, March 16 /CNW/ - The Churchill Corporation today announced that Laird Electric Inc. ("Laird"), a Churchill subsidiary, has been selected by three different project owners to perform electrical and instrumentation work at oil sands projects around Alberta. The $45 million of backlog associated with these projects results in a total backlog of $82 million for Laird as at March 1, 2010.

Laird has been awarded directly, electrical work on a new capital project to be executed at a long-standing oil sands client's Fort McMurray plant. "Laird has performed a variety of new construction, maintenance and shutdown work for this client over the years and is pleased to continue our long-term association with a leader in oil sands development," said Jim Houck, President and CEO of Churchill.

Fluor Canada acting as EPC for another oil sands client has awarded the Temporary Power work relating to the development of the Kearl Lake project to Laird. This work is expected to begin immediately and conclude in Q3 2010. "Through this arrangement with Laird, Fluor has secured access to a well-trained and experienced workforce with an outstanding record of safety and on-time delivery. We are excited about this initial award and look forward to building on the expected success from this project," said Houck.

Finally, Laird has been awarded new work at the existing Shell Scotford Upgrader and the expansion site which are located in Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta. This work will begin immediately and is expected to be completed over 12-16 months. "The penetration of the Edmonton market has been a key strategic objective for Laird, so we are delighted that Shell has chosen to work with Laird. These three awards are a positive signal that industrial construction activity in Western Canada is resuming driven by the recovery in commodity prices which occurred during the second half of 2009 and continued into 2010," said Houck.

About The Churchill Corporation:

The Churchill Corporation provides building construction, industrial insulation and electrical contracting services throughout Western Canada. Churchill common shares are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol "CUQ".

FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS

Certain statements in this Press Release may constitute "forward-looking statements". Forward-looking statements include, without limitation, statements regarding the future financial position, business strategy, budgets, litigation, projected costs, capital expenditures, financial results, taxes, plans and objectives of the Corporation. Many of these statements can be identified by looking for words such as "believes," "expects," "may," "will," "intends," "anticipates," "estimates," "continues," or the negative thereof, or other variations thereon. Although management of Churchill believes its expectations regarding future performance of the Corporation are based on reasonable assumptions and currently available competitive, financial and economic data, market conditions and operating plans, it can give no assurance its expectations will be achieved. The Corporation cautions that, by their nature, forward-looking statements, involve risks, and uncertainties and that its actual actions, and/or results could differ materially from those expressed or implied in such forward-looking statements, and that the aforementioned risks, uncertainties and actions could affect the extent to which a particular projection materializes. The Corporation assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements should circumstances or the Corporation's management's estimates or opinions change.

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For further information: Andrew Apedoe, Vice President, Investor Relations & Secretary, The Churchill Corporation, [phone], Email: [email protected], Website: www.churchillcorporation.com