Cirque du Soleil and its secured creditors are close to reaching a agreement on a second stalking horse bid for the financially strapped entertainment group, after lenders opposed a deal with shareholders including TPG Capital and Fosun International, a Canadian court heard today, Reuters reported. Canada’s once high-flying Cirque has received protection from creditors as it restructures after the COVID-19 pandemic forced it to cancel shows and lay off artists. The Montreal-based entertainment company filed for bankruptcy in late June.

Canadian employment rose by a record-setting 953,000 people in June as COVID-19 lockdown restrictions eased across the country, the Globe and Mail reported. Statistics Canada said today that combined with May’s gain of nearly 290,000 workers, the labour market has recovered about 40 percent of the three million jobs that were lost during the pandemic. The unemployment rate fell to 12.3 percent from May’s record of 13.7 percent. June’s employment gains were almost evenly split between full-time and part-time work.

The Canadian government is predicting a historic CDN$343 billion (US$254 billion) deficit for 2020-21 resulting from its economic and stimulus plans to battle COVID-19, the Associated Press reported. The amount, included in a fiscal “snapshot” the Liberal government released Wednesday, is a huge jump from the CDN$28.1 billion (US$20.8 billion) deficit projected prior to the pandemic. The report says that since March, the federal government has spent more than CDN$231 billion (US$171 billion) on health and safety measures as well as direct aid to Canadians and businesses.

Canada will ramp up issuance of long-term debt this year to finance its record budget deficit, Bloomberg News reported. The federal government plans to sell C$106 billion ($78 billion) of 10-year and 30-year bonds in the fiscal year that ends March 31, according to budget documents released Wednesday. That’s more than six times the C$17 billion of such bonds it sold last year.

DavidsTea is seeking court protection from creditors so it can continue operating while it restructures and plans to close a significant number of its stores, the Globe and Mail reported. The Montreal-based company said today that it will seek an order in Quebec Superior Court to allow it to restructure under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act. It also plans to seek similar orders for its U.S. subsidiary under chapter 15 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.

Insurer Aviva Canada faces a proposed class-action lawsuit that claims Canadian businesses have been denied contagious-disease coverage during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Globe and Mail reported. Toronto law firm Thomson Rogers filed a request for certification of a class action last week in the Ontario Superior Court against Aviva Insurance Company of Canada, alleging that the company failed to honour its business-interruption claims for Canadian businesses with what is known as enterprise-insurance policies.

A stalking horse bid for Cirque du Soleil Entertainment Group was dismissed as inadequate by lenders during a Quebec court hearing into the company’s restructuring on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Canada’s once high-flying Cirque received initial protection from its creditors, after the COVID-19 pandemic forced the famed circus operator to cancel shows and lay off artists. Montreal-based Cirque, which grew from a troupe of street-performers in the 1980s to a company with global reach, has slashed about 95% of its workforce and suspended shows due to the pandemic.

Canada’s Cirque du Soleil Entertainment Group filed for bankruptcy protection on Monday as the COVID-19 pandemic forced the famed circus operator to cancel shows and lay off its artistes, Reuters reported. The Montreal-based entertainment company, which runs six shows in Las Vegas, has struggled to keep its business running amid coronavirus restrictions that started in March, forcing it to lay off about 95% of its workforce and temporarily suspend its shows.

Footwear retailer Aldo Group Inc. could receive a capital injection from Quebec’s government as it works through a court restructuring triggered by the pandemic, Bloomberg News reported. “We are, through Investissement Quebec, at the table with them to look at what’s the best structure going forward,” Economy Minister Pierre Fitzgibbon said in an interview with Bloomberg News. “We’re going to be helping,” he said, adding it’s too early to give an amount or a structure for the investment. “It could be equity.” Investissement Quebec is the government’s investment and lending arm.

Canada’s housing agency announced it will tighten mortgage qualification rules for high-risk borrowers, a controversial move that could curb credit in an economy trying to emerge from its deepest contraction of the postwar era, Bloomberg News reported. The state-owned Canada Mortgage & Housing Corp., which offers default insurance to home buyers with low down payments, said it will narrow eligibility criteria as of July 1. Buyers will need higher credit scores and lower debt burdens to qualify, the agency said Thursday in Ottawa.