No matter how you look at it, and no matter the outcome, Sept. 14, 2022 will be a pivotal day in Laurentian University’s 62-year history in this community.
Provided the plan of arrangement is approved by a majority in number of affected creditors present at the meeting , the university expects to go back to court to finally exit CCAA creditor protection on Oct. 5. Under the terms of the plan of arrangement, a pool of cash of up to $53.5-million for Laurentian’s creditors is to come from the sale of university real estate to the province of Ontario, as per an agreement this spring with the province. Except for some classifications of creditors who will be paid out in full, court filings have provided creditors with an estimate of a 14.1- to a 24.2-per-cent recovery on what they’re owed.
But a couple of groups formed as a result of Laurentian's restructuring have been urging creditors to reject the plan of arrangement. That includes a group of 11 professors owed money by Laurentian after they were fired as part of mass layoffs and program cuts brought about by LU’s insolvency restructuring.Even after the late-breaking news about amendments to Laurentian’s plan of arrangement, the group of terminated professors continue to urge creditors to vote no.
After terminating more than 100 faculty members' jobs, and "terminating our careers," Laurentian is essentially "asking us to subsidize the continued operations of the university to the tune of about 80 cents out of every dollar that's legitimately owed to us,” he said. “And we find that to be unacceptable.”
The province has now invested a considerable amount of money in Laurentian, he said, including taking over Laurentian’s $35 million debtor-in-possession insolvency loan, as well as offering up to $53.5 million to purchase assets to fund the plan of arrangement. Bangs told Sudbury.com last week that if the plan of arrangement vote isn’t successful, “it's not a very pretty picture that Laurentian will be facing,” as it will mean liquidation.
While a lot of hard work has been done to get Laurentian to this point in its insolvency restructuring, Bangs said a lot of hard work is ahead as well.