https://www.kenoraonline.com/local/receiver-to-determine-sawmill-s-fate

PriceWaterhouseCoopers have been appointed receivers for Kenora Forest Products and Prendiville Industries. This means PWC can take over the property and inventory, in an effort to recover debts owed to creditors. 

The list of creditors on file includes:

• Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) – $13.7 million
• FedNor – $3 million
• Northern Ontario Heritage Foundation Corporation (NOHFC) – $2.5 million
• Province of Ontario – $1.8 million
• Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) – $1.5 million
• Miitigoog $349,273
• Lawrence Derouard Trucking – $112,013
• Riverview Industries – $110, 077

The receiver has argued in court it’s also aware of the interests of former employees and the City of Kenora. The deadline for submitting a proposal to creditors was at the end of May, but none was filed. A meeting with creditors was held in mid-June. 

While court documents show there’s been interest from potential buyers for the sawmill, no bids came forward by the end of May. Estimates filed with the court say assets have a book value of close to $50 million, but the actual value these assets might get in the current market haven’t been estimated in public documents before the court. Some information has been sealed, in order to protect commercial interests, such as the resale value of the company and its assets.

Court documents also showed there were liabilities worth just under $30 million. This includes more than $10 million in disputed tariffs tied up at the American border. 

Kenora Forest Products announced they were laying off their staff of more than 100 last September. The sawmill had been doing well — adding shifts to reach full production in November 2016 — but  the impact of American tariffs on softwood lumber could no longer be ignored by the end of 2019.

The restart on Family Day in February of 2015 ended seven years of indefinite idle that started during the Forestry Crisis in 2008. 

Joe Prendiville started Prendiville Industries with a sawmill in 1951, after he emigrated from Ireland. Prendiville Industries invested about $22 million to refurbish the Kenora sawmill before the restart five years ago, with another $4 million added after the kiln fire in December 2017. 

There were reports of companies interested in buying the sawmill, with Eacom holding a recruiting event in Kenora last fall. However, Eacom has reserved comment on any interest in buying the mill property, saying the recruiting event was to help their other operations, including Ear Falls. 

Last fall, the forest industry association called for cash to help companies through the latest impasse with the Americans. The last softwood trade agreement expired in 2015. A $100 million federal aid package was announced in 2017, but the association said it was misinformation, since it didn’t allow companies to borrow against money held at the border during the tariff dispute.

A new free trade agreement that went into effect July 1, the CUSMA, but it isn’t expected to provide any help for the softwood industry.