It has been almost four months and the future of Wincrief Forestry Products is still uncertain, according to the chief of Wabaseemoong (Whitedog) First Nation, John Paishk.

The forestry company, which is 51 per cent owned by the First Nation, was facing the prospect of bankruptcy this spring and on April 1, Wincrief filed a document known as ‘Notice of Intention to Make a Proposal’ which protected the company from its creditors for 30 days to give it time to come up with a plan on how to fix its business.

Attempts at finding out what has been happening with the once-promising forestry company from its management since the notice was filed have proved largely unsuccessful. The only response received during the most recent inquiry was that “the process is still ongoing.”

That process, according to Paishk, involved Wincrief getting a 30-day extension to the original deadline for producing a bankruptcy avoidance plan for shareholders to approve. A plan was eventually submitted to the Whitedog band council.

Due to the lack of experience of band council members regarding bankruptcies, Paishk said they hired an accountant with expertise in bankruptcy regulations to act on behalf of the band while the plan is being implemented.

Just one year before it filed the notice of intention, Wincrief had been a seemingly flourishing company with a new pole peeling operation and prefabricated homes business with First Nations communities as clients. The chief said the possible bankruptcy of the band’s own forestry community came as a shock to the band council and the rest of the community.

“We didn’t know what was happening in there; inside the actual operation of the company,” said Paishk. “(If they still go bankrupt) we’ll lose everything, I guess.”

What angers the chief is that the First Nation was not warned beforehand the company was doing badly. According to the chief, the company’s administration asked the band for a $500,000 loan and then filed the notice of intention three weeks later.

“(Wincrief) asked to have a meeting here at night, and a lot of people were in attendance. The people voted to give them the loan,” said Paishk. “But they never said anything (about how bad the company was doing financially).”

The amount of $500,000 does appear as being owed to the band on the list of creditors in the notice of intention, but it doesn’t indicate when or under what circumstances that money was given to the company.

According to the chief, the bankruptcy documents indicate it was actions by the First Nation that damaged Wincrief’s business. In November of last year, Whitedog members voted against building a logging bridge across Caribou Falls, which would have opened $40 million worth of timber for harvesting for Wincrief and other companies.

“The people here wanted to slow down the logging in our area, so they voted against the bridge … and it came up 60 per cent against 40 per cent for or something like that,” explained the chief.

“On the papers, they said that was one of the problems. But when I asked (CEO Greg Moncrief) last September if we applied for some loans for them, could they survive without the bridge, he said ‘yes.’”

As for what the company’s recovery plan entails, the chief said he doesn’t really know. Much of that is being left in the hands of the accountant working on the band’s behalf.

Greg Moncrief could not be reached for comment.