Canada

General Motors of Canada Co. has pledged to eliminate the $2.6-billion deficit in the pension plans for its unionized workers and retirees as part of a new contract negotiated between the company and Unifor, The Globe and Mail reported yesterday. The automaker’s 29,000 retirees in Canada were worried about the future of the plans as Unifor and GM went into contract negotiations earlier this month, fearing that the assembly plant in Oshawa, Ont., would be closed, the company would wind up the plans and they would take a hit of about 25 percent on their pensions.

Foreign investors dropped out of Vancouver’s property market last month after the provincial government imposed a 15 percent surcharge to stem a surge in home prices, Bloomberg News reported. Overseas buyers accounted for less than 1 percent of the C$6.5 billion ($5 billion) of residential real estate purchases between Aug. 2 to 31 in Metro Vancouver, according to data released by British Columbia’s Ministry of Finance on Thursday. In the roughly seven weeks prior to that, they’d represented 17 percent of transactions by value.

After more than two years in court-supervised bankruptcy protection, private equity investment firm called Bedrock Industries Group —a fund that buys distressed companies and restructures them —moved into prime position to buy U.S. Steel Canada, CBC.ca reported. A memordandum of understanding with the province was announced Wednesday, but there are many things that would still have to be negotiated first- and many other players in those negotiations.

Lost in last week’s news of more Canadian megamergers, Calgary’s Tervita Corp. unveiled a major restructuring that capped off the company’s near decade-long march toward a broken balance sheet, The Globe and Mail reported. As part of the complicated arrangement, the energy services and waste management company will swap its current debt for equity, with secured debt holders getting preferred shares and unsecured debt holders receiving common shares.

Tervita Corp., the Canadian oilfield services company focused on waste management, is planning a debt-for-equity swap to reduce its total leverage by about C$2 billion ($1.5 billion), Bloomberg News reported. Holders of 63 percent of its senior unsecured notes and 90 percent of its subordinated unsecured notes have agreed to the proposal, according to a statement on Wednesday from the closely-held company. Tervita also has secured agreement from 69 percent of its shareholders, the Calgary-based company said.

Lightstream Resources increased 2015 cash bonuses for three executives months before the Canadian oil producer proposed a debt-for-equity swap to stay afloat as its stock was down to pennies, the Chicago Tribune reported. Chief Financial Officer Peter Scott and Chief Operating Officer Rene LaPrade saw their non-equity compensation for last year, paid in December, increase about 11 percent from 2014 to C$200,000 ($153,000) each, according to a filing from the Calgary-based company on Friday. The bonus for Peter Hawkes, vice-president for geosciences, surged 32 percent to C$119,763.

Debt and equity investors in Canada's largest newspaper publisher have approved a restructuring plan that will give creditors nearly all of its equity and slash its debt obligations, Postmedia Network Canada Corp said on Wednesday. Postmedia, which owns the National Post, Montreal Gazette, Calgary Herald, Ottawa Citizen and Sun tabloids in Toronto, Calgary, Edmonton, Ottawa and Winnipeg, said that 99.9 percent of shareholder votes cast were in favor while two separate tiers of debtholders cast 100 percent of their votes in favor.

A few weeks ago the provincial government in British Columbia made headlines by instituting a 15% extra land transfer tax on any real estate transactions from foreign buyers in an attempt to cool Vancouver’s red-hot real estate market, The Motley Fool reported. Reaction to the new law was strong on both sides of the issue. Realtors, mortgage brokers, and bullish investors decried the move, calling it unfair and racist. This group not only thought the law itself was unfair, but the decision to implement the new tax immediately drew extra ire.

BlackBerry’s announcement that it will be restructuring its debt is “smart financial management,” one tech industry analyst says, CTV News reported. “It gives BlackBerry even more runway as it continues to manage its way through what’s become a very protracted transition period,” CTV technology analyst Carmi Levy said Friday. BlackBerry announced Friday that it will be redeeming US$1.245 billion worth of unsecured convertible debentures, which can be converted into shares in the company at a price of US$10 per share.

An international arbitration tribunal has ordered Venezuela to pay a Vancouver-based mining company more than $1.2 billion ($1.5 billion Cdn.) for expropriating its gold mines. Venezuela took over Rusoro Mining’s investments in the country as part of a nationalization of the gold industry in 2011, the Toronto Star reported on a Canadian Press story. Rusoro Mining Ltd. said Tuesday the money is due immediately and it expects that Venezuela will comply with its international obligations.