Laurentian University’s judicially supervised restructuring is officially complete. This puts an end to two years of turmoil in Northern Ontario, where the institution’s decision to shelter itself from its creditors was denounced by professors, members of the Franco-Ontarian community and the Auditor General of Ontario.
On Monday, the plan of arrangement – the document in which the establishment explains how it intends to resolve the problems it faces – was certified by the controller, the accounting firm EY. On October 5, the Ontario Superior Court approved the university’s plan of arrangement with its creditors. On September 14, the latter voted in favor of the plan. The controller then suggested that the establishment risked closing its doors if creditors voted against the plan.
Legal proceedings against the university or members of its board of directors have been suspended since the beginning of the restructuring, on 1er February 2021. This is no longer the case as of today.
Still to do
The completion of the restructuring is a “major step that allows Laurentian to continue to work with its key stakeholders to rebuild on a solid financial foundation,” the post-secondary institution said in a statement.
However, the work is not finished for the university. Under the plan of arrangement, several projects will begin over the next two months. The institution will launch a call for tenders to find one or more consultants who will lead an organizational restructuring of the university. Within 120 days, another RFP will be drafted to solicit the help of a consultant who will create a “strategic plan” for Laurentian. University unions should be consulted.
Letters finally published
Letters exchanged between the university’s former president, Robert Haché, and the former minister of colleges and universities, Ross Romano, which had been sealed by the court were finally published on Monday. The letters were written in late January 2021, days before the post-secondary institution filed for protection from its creditors. Robert Haché presents reasons why the university should have recourse to the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA)
In the ten-page letter, the university announces to the government that it must lay off about 120 professors to help it solve its financial problems. Seeing no way to dismiss professors with the approval of their union, the university turned to the CCAA, we learn in a letter which, to date, was confidential. 195 employees, including 116 teachers, finally lost their jobs from April 2021.
When the university took shelter from its creditors, management had been negotiating an agreement for about a year with the Association of Professors of Laurentian University (APPUL). The university feared the effects of an appeal by LUFA to the Ontario Labor Relations Board on January 29, 2021, which would have forced the establishment to produce financial documents that it did not want to be made public . The CCAA suspended the proceedings against the university and therefore prevented an appeal by APPUL.
The letters are “disturbing and alarming” deplores Fabrice Colin, the president of APPUL, who notes however that the Auditor General of Ontario had already highlighted in November the strategic nature of the university’s decision to restructure. through the CCAA. “It’s confirmation that the administration only had a vicious attack on the faculty in mind,” he said.
The university, which refused any request for an interview on Monday, no longer has the same legal protection and recourse against the establishment is possible. “We are in discussion with our lawyers to discuss the steps that can be taken,” explained Fabrice Colin. “From the collective or individual point of view, there are things to look for,” said Aurélie Lacassagne, one of the 116 teachers fired in April 2021.
This story is supported by the Local Journalism Initiative, funded by the Government of Canada.