Good morning, Nickel City! Here are a few stories to start your day on this Tuesday morning.
Laurentian on the ‘home stretch’ of CCAA, lawyer says
A judge has again granted permission to extend the stay of proceedings protecting Laurentian University from its creditors, this time until Sept. 30. Laurentian has been undergoing insolvency restructuring for well over a year now after declaring insolvency and filing for creditor protection under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (or CCAA) in early 2021.Speaking at the May 30 hearing where Laurentian made the request, the university’s insolvency lawyer, DJ Miller, said the latest stay extension “represents the home stretch in Laurentian’s CCAA restructuring.” The university has been engaged in negotiations with its creditors as it prepares to come to a plan of arrangement. A plan of arrangement is essentially a plan put forward by an insolvent organization to pay out its creditors, and it must be approved by these creditors. Laurentian’s intention had been to seek a “meeting order” for its creditors to vote on a formal plan of arrangement by May 31, which was the previous expiry date of the stay of proceedings before Monday’s hearing.However, the university said it needs more time to work on a plan of arrangement, given the province’s offer earlier this month to purchase certain Laurentian assets for $53.5 million. Those funds would be made available to creditors as part of the CCAA plan of arrangement.Chief Justice Geoffrey Morawetz, who presided over the Laurentian matter Monday, as he has most hearings related to LU’s insolvency, asked if the $53.5 million has been allocated to any specific parcels of real estate.
Glencore antes up US$1.1 billion for bribery and market manipulation schemes
Glencore International AG and Glencore Ltd, a Swiss-headquartered international miner and commodities trader, pleaded guilty this week to charges of bribing foreign officials and engaging in an oil market manipulation scheme. As a result, Glencore has agreed to pay more than US$1.1 billion in criminal fines and forfeiture of all of its estimated profits. The guilty pleas are part of a coordinated resolution with criminal and civilian authorities in the U.S., the United Kingdom and Brazil. It’s the culmination of a global, five-year investigation involving the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), FBI, U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the U.S. Attorney Office for the Southern District of New York and Connecticut in coordination with the United Kingdom’s Serious Fraud Office and the Brazilian Public Prosecutor’s Office. The charges filed by the DOJ arise out of a decade-long scheme by Glencore and its subsidiaries to make, and conceal, payments to foreign officials in multiple countries. The DOJ said Glencore entered a guilty plea for its conduct in bribing officials in Nigeria, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea, Brazil, Venezuela and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Glencore has agreed to pay approximately $700 million in penalties.
Reports show Laurentian has spent $20.9M on restructuring so far
Laurentian University spent $20.9 million on restructuring costs between the early winter of 2021 and the beginning of this month, according to cash flow information included in reports put out by the firm Ernst & Young, including the latest report released on May 27. A running total of restructuring costs is not presented in the report, but the number can be obtained by adding up the totals in five separate reports over the course of Laurentian’s insolvency.The university spent close to $5.4 million on restructuring between Jan. 8 and May 6, 2022, according to the latest report by Ernst & Young, the firm acting as the court-appointed monitor of Laurentian’s insolvency restructuring. That is actually lower than the roughly $6.5 million Ernst & Young had projected the university would spend on restructuring during that time period. The report said that disbursements related to restructuring costs were lower than forecast primarily due to the timing of payments. In terms of interest and other fees on the $35 million debtor-in-possession (DIP) loan Laurentian took out to backstop its finances during its restructuring, the university spent another $311,000 in that category Jan. 8 to May 6 (the forecast was $359,000). That means Laurentian has now paid $3.39 million in DIP loan interest and fees.
Greater Sudbury’s red light cameras to become active in July
Greater Sudbury’s long talked-about red light cameras will begin catching evidence of motorists plowing through red lights as early as July. “In the last couple weeks the poles have been installed … so it’s drawing a little more interest, but at this time there’s nothing actually in the poles,” city traffic and asset management supervisor Joe Rocca told Sudbury.com. The poles aren’t electrified yet and the boxes are currently empty. The red light camera vendor is expected to install these components and fine tune the devices within the coming weeks, putting them in operation as early as July. The city ended up narrowing in on six locations for these red light cameras.
Ontario party leaders pledge to fix North's health care shortage
Ontario's main political parties are promising to hire more doctors and nurses and increase the number of spaces at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine to address the need for health-care workers in the region — a problem that a hospital president says requires both immediate and long-term solutions. The longstanding shortage of health-care workers in the region has prompted numerous calls for significantly increased investment in the sector to address local shortfalls, often accompanied by warnings about the consequences of inaction on the issue. Such shortages forced the Margaret Cochenour Memorial Hospital in Red Lake, Ont., to close its emergency room for 24 hours at one point in late March due to a shortage in local physicians able to work in the department. Sue LeBeau, the hospital's CEO, said the 24-hour closure was "very difficult" for hospital staff and created "a sense of anxiety" in the Red Lake community, which recently experienced two forest fires and flooding. "It was quite terrifying, actually," LeBeau said, noting there was a period of about five hours during which both the hospital's ambulances were more than 200 kilometres away carrying patients to another facility. "It's something that I think our staff and our physicians are still grappling with."
Send a postcard to a soldier campaign launches
The Royal Canadian Legion is inviting the public to send a postcard to a soldier this month. The Legion said in a press release that as Canada gets set to turn 155 on July 1, it is a great time to tell soldiers deployed in Canada and abroad “they make us proud.” “On July 1st as we celebrate with family, barbecue and fireworks, let’s remember those who keep us safe and allow us to enjoy the freedoms that we have living in this great country of ours,” said Gisele Pharand, Legion Zone H3 deputy public relations officer, in a news release. The public is invited to contact their local Legion branch to arrange to get postcards. There is no limit on how many you can second, making it “a great project for seniors, schools,and cadet groups to name a few,” the branch said. The goal is to send 5,000 postcards. To find your local Legion branch, click here.
A high in the low 30s possible today
Expect a high of 29 today under sunny skies, but the humidity will make it feel more like the mid-30s. The UV index today is nine, or very high. Tonight, expect cloudy periods with a 70-per-cent chance of showers and a low of 16.
