Canadians from 35 to 44 years old added the most relative to other age groups to their debt loads as rising home prices led them to take out larger mortgages, according to a report by Royal Bank of Canada, Bloomberg News reported today. People in that age bracket had liabilities equal to 49 percent of their net worth in 2012, up from 31 percent for the same group in 1999, the report by Royal Bank economists Paul Ferley and Nathan Janzen said. The figures compare with 9 percent and 12 percent for people aged 55 to 64.
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Bombardier Inc's unexpected aerospace restructuring announcement last week casts an uncomfortable light on the division's ongoing struggles, with credit rating firms uncertain about its longer term prospects. The restructuring, which was announced July 23, eight days before the release of second-quarter results on Thursday, is the latest bad news for the beleaguered unit, bruised in recent years by multiple delays in its cash-draining CSeries program and by shrinking market share for its existing aircraft portfolio.
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Ponderosa In Financial Trouble

Ponderosa Golf and Country Club in Peachland has money woes, again. The original Ponderosa fell into receivership years ago and was revived by Ponderosa Peachland Development, The Daily Courier reported. The new Ponderosa calls for a $1 billion master-planned community with an 18-hole course designed by Greg Norman (already open) surrounded by 2,300 homes. Showhomes are open and construction was under way on other homes. But work has halted with the new Ponderosa reaching an impasse with Toronto-based Romspen Investment Corp. over the $34.4 million Ponderosa owes Romspen.
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A damning report by the monitor overseeing the League group of companies’ restructuring efforts cites inexperienced, inept management and the poorly executed Capital City Centre in Colwood as the reasons for the death of Victoria-based League, the Times Colonist reported. In his 120-page report, Mike Vermette, a vice-president at monitor PricewaterhouseCoopers, noted League will be winding down all operations, liquidating all assets and cease to exist after the first quarter of 2015. The blame for that appears to rest on the shoulders of League founders Adam Gant and Emanuel Arruda.
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The Quebec government is adding its name to a list of creditors seeking money from the insolvent railway company at the heart of the Lac-Megantic train disaster, CTV News reported on a Canadian Press story. The government said Monday that it is seeking $409 million from the Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway for expenses incurred and yet to come that stem from the tragedy. The Justice Department said it filed a claim on June 13.
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Veris Gold Corp., which owns Jerritt Canyon, filed for bankruptcy protection Monday in the U.S. and Canada after the Deutsche Bank AG, London Branch claimed the company was in default, the Elko Daily Free Press reported. These filings also follow Veris Gold laying off nearly 60 people at the Jerritt Canyon complex last week. Veris Gold said the Supreme Court of British Columbia issued an order Monday granting “the company’s application for creditor protection under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act.” Veris Gold has its headquarters in Vancouver.
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Telus Corp. has served notice that it’s dropping a $350-million takeover bid for Mobilicity, ending a drawn-out effort to scoop up the struggling small player and its valuable wireless spectrum, The Globe and Mail reported. This turn of events leaves Mobilicity, now in bankruptcy protection, without a solid bidder to take over its business, recent reports from its bankruptcy monitor would suggest. It also leaves bondholders, who are owed hundreds of millions of dollars, at risk of significant losses.
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With $7.3 billion up for grabs, Nortel's Canadian, U.S. and European divisions began staking out their claims to the cash that is all that's left of the former telecommunications giant, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. Courtrooms in Toronto and Wilmington were twinned with some $1 million worth of technology to allow judges in each city to jointly make the call on who gets the money from the going-out-of-business sale of a company that operated in more than 100 countries and left unpaid bills in all of them.
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Canadians are being bombarded with mixed messages on how much debt they should take on, The Wall Street Journal Canada Real Time blog reported. Stimulated by rock-bottom interest rates in place since the financial crisis, Canadians have strapped on a lot of debt in the last few years, and that’s been a big concern for policy makers. Household borrowing was at record highs in the fourth quarter, with the oft-quoted debt-to-disposable-income ratio hitting a record 164.2% in that period.
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