TransCanada Supports Farm Safety Education for Canadian Youth

WINNIPEG, MANITOBA--(Marketwired - April 1, 2014) - The Canadian Agricultural Safety Association (CASA) is pleased to announce that TransCanada Corporation will be helping rural youth stay safe on the farm in 2014. The company is donating $40,000 to support Progressive Agriculture Safety Day® events across Canada this year.

Marcel Hacault, the executive director of CASA, says, "We are so pleased that TransCanada has chosen to invest in the safety education of farm and rural children by supporting Safety Days. This funding will enable the Canadian Agricultural Safety Association to expand the number of Safety Days in Canada and provide more technical support to local volunteers on the ground."

Progressive Agriculture Safety Day® is North America's largest rural safety and health education program for children. In 2013, approximately 13,000 children and participants took part in Safety Day events across Canada, the largest number of participants since the program was introduced to Canada in 2002. TransCanada's donation will support 20 additional Safety Day events, enabling the program to reach 3,000 additional participants in Canada throughout 2014.

Safety Day events use a combination of fun and interactive workshops and speakers to teach children to think about their actions in relation to hazards on the farm including animal safety, chemical safety, grain storage, farm machinery safety and underground utilities awareness.

"By partnering with CASA, we can ensure programs like Progressive Agriculture Safety Days receive the financial support they need to reach more communities across Canada," says Peter Kruselnicki, vice president of Stakeholder Relations at TransCanada. "It's one of the ways we make sure the communities where we operate stay safe."

The company's most recent partnership with CASA is especially relevant in light of the fact that April is Safe Digging Month - the time of year when all Common Ground Alliance stakeholders come together to communicate how important it is that professionals and homeowners call or click before they dig. TransCanada, which operates 72,747 kilometres of pipeline throughout North America, works to promote safe digging throughout the year by working with industry and community partners.

"Adding CASA to our list of partners is a great way to promote a culture of safety in communities throughout Canada," explains Kruselnicki. "More specifically, this is also a means of preventing injuries, property damage and outages by ensuring that Canadians are calling or clicking before they dig."

As part of its partnership with CASA supporting additional Safety Day events, TransCanada is distributing over 20,000 illustrated scratch-and-sniff cards aimed at teaching children the signs of a pipeline leak and other awareness materials encouraging parents to learn more about how to locate and avoid underground utilities.

To learn more about Safety Days, visit www.casa-acsa.ca and click on "Safety Days."

With more than 60 years' experience, TransCanada is a leader in the responsible development and reliable operation of North American energy infrastructure including natural gas and oil pipelines, power generation and gas storage facilities. TransCanada operates a network of natural gas pipelines that extends more than 68,500 kilometres (42,500 miles), tapping into virtually all major gas supply basins in North America. TransCanada is one of the continent's largest providers of gas storage and related services with more than 400 billion cubic feet of storage capacity. A growing independent power producer, TransCanada owns or has interests in over 11,800 megawatts of power generation in Canada and the United States. TransCanada is developing one of North America's largest oil delivery systems. TransCanada's common shares trade on the Toronto and New York stock exchanges under the symbol TRP. For more information visit: www.transcanada.com or check us out on Twitter @TransCanada or http://blog.transcanada.com.

The Canadian Agricultural Safety Association is a national, non-profit organization promoting farm safety in the agricultural sector. CASA's vision is a country where no one is hurt farming and CASA is working with partners in government, business, and farming organizations across the country to support initiatives that equip producers, their families and their workers with the information and tools needed to make farms a safe place to live, work and play. CASA is funded primarily through Growing Forward 2, a federal, provincial and territorial initiative, with support from the agricultural and corporate sectors. Connect with CASA at www.casa-acsa.ca through Facebook, YouTube or Twitter @planfarmsafety.