A judge has granted Laurentian University’s latest requests of the courts, which include appointing several court officers and the lifting of a $500,000 cap on fees for independent counsel representing the board of governors.
The university, which declared insolvency in February, continues to undergo court-supervised restructuring under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA).
Its latest requests of the court include appointing three people as claims officers to determine disputed claims against Laurentian and removing the cap on professional fees for independent counsel for LU’s board of governors, which is currently set at $500,000.
Laurentian president Robert Haché said in a Dec. 13 affidavit that board counsel has reached the amount of its fee cap.
Laurentian counsel DJ Miller said at Monday’s hearing that approximately 1,500 claims have been filed at LU by its creditors, “in the aggregate amount of in excess of $360 million.”
“Many of those are expected to simply proceed in the ordinary course efficiently and will not require the involvement of a claims officer,” said Miller, but added that there are others that are complex or disputed, and require intervention.
Another request from LU dealt with at the hearing included approving a grievance resolution process for all grievances filed by the Laurentian University Faculty Association (LUFA) against LU before Oct. 14 (there are 36 of them as of that date) and until LU’s emergence from the CCAA proceeding.
Laurentian also proposed the appointment of a grievance resolution officer in relation to this matter.
In a responding record filed by LUFA on Friday, the faculty association complained the grievance resolution process had timelines that were “overly ambitious,” and imposed timelines on certain matters that could be addressed without a strict deadline.
However, lawyers for LUFA and Laurentian University were able to work together to address these matters consensually, with Morawetz stating after the brief Monday court hearing that he was granting Laurentian’s motion in its entirety.
A written endorsement by Morawetz will follow.
Morawetz said he hoped the court-appointed monitor of Laurentian’s CCAA restructuring, the firm Ernst & Young, would make sure that with the addition of so many court officers, that “efficiency is maintained.”
“I don't want to see duplication, I don't want to see administrative costs getting out of control,” Morawetz said.
“The monitor is a court officer, now we’re adding three claims officers, a grievance resolution officer, and we also have independent counsel for the board. So we've got an awful lot of people getting involved.”
Miller said the claims officers are not paid just by virtue of being appointed, but to the extent that they’re dealing with particular claims. She said three claims officers were appointed to ensure that the claims officers would have enough time between them to deal with the matter.
Liz Pilon, a representative of Ernst & Young, said in relation to the removal of the $500,000 cap on independent counsel fees for LU’s board of governors, it's been "helpful" having the benefit of counsel representing the board as it navigates various issues.
“The monitor believes it has created efficiencies,” Pilon said. “So the monitor also supports the request for lifting of the cap of those fees.”
Court documents filed by LUFA in relation to this matter also give the public a look at grievances filed by the faculty union against Laurentian since the spring.
For example, LUFA complains Laurentian is failing to maintain its faculty complement, as it’s not replacing members who have recently resigned or retired.
LUFA said in the court document that Laurentian is proceeding “as though it had successfully attained the right to further reduce” the university’s faculty complement through attrition, beyond faculty cuts negotiated this past spring through the CCAA process.
There was a discussion of the same subject at the November meeting of LU’s senate, in which members of the governing body brought up the 10 faculty members who have left the university since the spring and have not been replaced.
LU president Robert Haché said during the November senate meeting that the faculty members would be replaced “as soon as possible and pending permission of the monitor” (the firm Ernst & Young).
The faculty union also outlines other grievances in the court document on diverse subjects including appointing “a company” to teach a forensic science course instead of a sessional instructor and failing to properly deal with “vile, hateful and anti-Semitic emails” sent to professor Reuben Roth.
