Amending the CCAA

What happened at Laurentian University should never happen at a public institution again.

The Company Creditor’s Arrangement Act (CCAA) was never designed for public institutions. Created in the 1930’s in the midst of the Great Depression, the CCAA was specifically designed to protect shareholder investments and ensure that creditors – ie banks – go their money back. The CCAA puts the company under the control of the courts and accountants, who then use a cloak of secrecy to break and cancel contracts, rip up negotiated agreements and ignore fair process in the name of ‘restoring profitability.’

Public institutions, by their very nature, measure profitability in a way that is not, and cannot be captured by the CCAA.

The Liberal Party of Canada promised to amend the CCAA if elected. It is up to us to remind our local Liberal MP’s that we expect them to become champions of this promise! Send a letter today to Sudbury riding Lib MP Viviane Lapointe, and Nickel Belt riding Lib MP Marc Serré.

Amend the legislation for the CCAA

Dear MP Viviane Lapointe and MP Marc Serré,

We congratulate you on your election win. We know you have many items on your to do list. We want to draw your attention to page 31 of the Liberal party platform, which states that, if elected, a Liberal government will  “Protect public post-secondary educational institutions, such as Laurentian University, from being subject to corporate restructuring.” We call on you to champion this within your party, and to ensure that this promise is enacted as quickly as possible. Further, we ask that you extend the protection to all public institutions, not simply educational institutions.

The financial crisis at Laurentian University has resulted in a huge economic and cultural loss for our community. This was a situation that should never have happened, and could have been avoided in any number of ways. Unfortunately, the Laurentian University invoked the Company Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA), a piece of legislation that was never designed to be used on a public institution.

The CCAA put the company under the control of the courts and accountants, who then use a cloak of secrecy and the guise of ‘law’ to then break and cancel contracts, rip up negotiated agreements, and essentially ignore fair process in the name of ‘restoring profitability.’

Public Institutions, by their very nature, measure profitability in a way that is not, and cannot be captured by the CCAA.

The Value of 40 years of regreening cannot be captured by the CCAA. The prestige and pride of having Nobel prize winning research and researchers in our community, and being part of ground breaking, earth changing research, cannot be captured by the CCAA. The thousands of performances of music and theatre, the thousands of art works, these cannot be captured by the CCAA.  The countless stories of alumni who were the first in their family to attend university, a feat only made possible because Laurentian University existed in the North, cannot be captured by the CCAA. The access to lands, and facilities that are used and beloved by members of the community – the pool, the trails, cannot be captured by the CCAA. (We note as well that you promised during the election to work to protect the greenspaces at LU for public access. We look forward to hearing about your efforts in this regard.)

In short, there are countless assets that a public institution holds in trust for the common good, and countless services that are performed for the public good without generating a profit.  The CCAA process has removed all this public good at the blink of an eye. The economic and cultural losses to our community will take decades to recover.

The CCAA process is the wrong process to use on a public institution. Public Universities, hospitals, libraries – these are not businesses designed to turn a profit. They are institutions designed to celebrate and improve the lives of the people of their community. They cannot be chopped up, ripped up, and turned into profit machines by the courts. Neither the Business Insolvency Act (BIA) nor the CCAA are appropriate mechanisms; we need a new process for public institutions. The CCAA must never be used on a public institution again. We call on you to champion your colleagues in government to amend the legislation to eliminate the use of the CCAA on public institutions again.

I look forward to hearing from you,

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Amend the legislation for the CCAA

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