Five years after Laurentian University declared insolvency in February 2021, some of the university’s creditors were paid what they were legally owed this winter, Sudbury.com reported. However, former LU employees fired during the insolvency restructuring owed severance pay still haven’t been paid, according to Laurentian’s faculty association. Laurentian sold property to the province last August for $53.5 million to fund a pool of money for its creditors stemming from its 2021-2022 insolvency restructuring under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA). On Jan.
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The federal government is set to temporarily suspend the federal fuel excise tax on gas and diesel starting next week, Bloomberg News reported. Prime Minister Mark Carney made the announcement in Ottawa on Tuesday, just hours after his government secured a majority through three byelection wins. The suspension will come into effect on April 20 and last until Sept. 7, and it comes as global oil prices remain volatile amid U.S.-Iran tensions.
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Reliance Logistics’ restructuring effort fell apart in its final weeks as cash flow dried up, a key customer disappeared, and lenders began pulling back equipment, TruckNews.com reported. Court filings show the B.C.-based carrier entered creditor protection on Jan. 2 but was deemed bankrupt on March 19 after failing to file a proposal. A report from the proposal trustee shows the company missed its cash flow projections by about $885,000 — roughly 90% of expected collections — leaving it with about $200 in cash and unable to meet basic obligations.
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Huntington, Thorneloe University and the University of Sudbury were part of the founding federation of Laurentian in the early 1960s. For decades they offered classes taken by Laurentian students. But that ended abruptly after Laurentian became the first university in the country to declare insolvency, which also ended the main source of revenue for the formerly federated universities, CBC.ca.
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MyndTec Inc., a Canadian-listed medtech firm specializing in neurostimulation-based rehabilitation devices for paralysis, has built its business around the FDA-cleared and Health Canada-licensed MyndMove system. The company’s model has relied heavily on proprietary technology and exclusive academic licenses to serve stroke and spinal cord injury patients. The company has announced it was unable to secure additional financing after its principal shareholder ceased funding, leaving it without liquidity to continue operations or meet obligations, TipRanks.com reported.
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The Trump administration will try to resolve as many problems with the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement as it can before July 1, but negotiations to rebalance the trade pact are likely to continue past that deadline, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Greer told an event at the Hudson Institute that the U.S. may need to take steps to exit the North American trade pact in order to continue the talks.
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Canada’s services economy contracted for a fifth straight month in March as uncertainty related to the war in the Middle East contributed to a decline in new business and after higher fuel costs raised operating expenses, S&P Global’s Canada services PMI data showed on Monday, BNNBloomberg reported. The headline Business Activity Index rose to 47.2 last month from 46.5 in February. That marked the index’s highest reading in five months but it remained below the 50 no-change mark - a reading below 50 shows deterioration in activity.
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Canada posted a merchandise trade deficit of $5.7 billion, its largest deficit since August last year as imports hit a record high, boosted by shipments of gold, BNN Bloomberg reported. Statistics Canada said on Thursday the result compared with a deficit of $4.2 billion in January as imports rose 8.4 per cent to a record $72.1 billion in February. Imports of metal and non-metallic mineral products increased 45.6 per cent in February as imports of unwrought gold, silver, and platinum group metals, and their alloys more than doubled.
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By the time Laura Pelletier took out a two-week loan in November at an equivalent annualized interest rate above 1,800%, she was already deep in debt, according to a Bloomberg analysis. Pelletier lives in Ottawa, but almost none of the lenders she used were licensed in her home province of Ontario, and the cost of the loans far surpassed what was allowed by regulators. Soon, the only way to keep current on one debt was to take out another. Over the course of two months she borrowed just under C$12,600 from 22 different unlicensed lenders, and owed them almost C$21,000.
The Bank of Canada's governing council has agreed it will have to rely on its own judgment more than usual on rate decisions, given heightened global uncertainty, according to minutes released on Wednesday, Reuters reported. The central bank kept its benchmark rate unchanged at 2.25% on March 18 and Governor Tiff Macklem said the governing council would look through the Iran war's immediate impact on inflation but would respond if inflation became persistent. The Iran war sent benchmark crude oil prices soaring and fanned concerns of a broader spike in inflation.