Tracking the Impact of Maple Leaf Loading Collapse
Prince George, B.C.- The news that Maple Leaf Loading, a Prince George based company, has gone into receivership, is cause for concern in some other areas.
In Grande Cache Alberta, Mayor Herb Castle is trying to gauge how his community will be affected "I am very concerned as to what it will do to our community ." About 30 workers were employed at Grande Cache Coal, many of them lived in the community.
According to reports, some of those who worked with Maple Leaf and lived in community housing in Grande Cache, were told they had to vacate their accommodations by the end of June 30th. In many cases that notice came with two days of the company going into receivership.
The Chief Executive Officer of Grande Cache Coal says while concerned about the community, his company will get by without Maple Leaf Loading "We are finding alternative solutions to move the coal " says Max Wang. "We cleared the stockpile of coal since May, but we are confident we will find a solution within a week or so." He says if the mine can't find another company to haul the coal, they will move it themselves "We only used them (Maple Leaf) to haul our underground production, for the surface production we haul our own coal."
Then there's the Wolverine Mine operations in the Yukon. The company says its employees at the Yukon Zinc’s Wolverine Mine " have not been impacted by this unfortunate situation. Yukon Zinc is working with Maple Leaf Loading to secure suitable alternatives for our zinc, copper and lead concentrate haul from Yukon to BC. "
Maple Leaf Loading President and CEO Martin Carsky confirmed to 250News on the weekend that Maple Leaf Loading Ltd had been placed in receivership. He said the closure of two mines, operated by Walter Energy out of the U.S., was a contributing factor “The company’s business is to haul coal for mining businesses and one of the company’s biggest customers is Walter Energy (of Alabama), and you probably noticed back in April that they had shut down the Wolverine and Willow (Creek coal mines in the Chetwynd-Tumbler Ridge area). So the business of Maple Leaf is quite tied to the business of Walter Energy and other coal companies and so, with the prices of those commodities right now those companies are struggling and it has a knock-on effect obviously to businesses like Maple Leaf.”
Ernst and Young has been appointed as the receiver, and when asked about employees concerned they would not get their June month end pay, Carsky says that's a question the receiver will have to answer.
As 250News reported on the weekend, about 200 employees are directly impacted by the Maple Leaf Loading collapse.
Comments
The writing has been on the wall for a long time
If it has been on the wall for a long time the employees were probably notified a long time ago to watch their finances and to look for potential alternate employment opportunities for a smooth transition with the minimum of hardship just in case the company would not make it.
What we were told was that the company had been purchased by an individual with “deep pockets” and that it would turn around for the better. We were asked to hang in there and not look for other employment. We were told that our paycheques would be fine. It almost appeared to have some truth to it as parts started to show up, trucks were put back into service, and new drivers were hired. We were lied to. The way that it all went down, it was nothing less than an orchestrated effort for the company to get as much out of us as they possibly could for free. Whether the ‘writing on the wall’ was evident or not, how would you like to be ripped off for over $10,000? They f***ed us, and they f***ed us good. No kiss, no dinner, and no lube. It’s the last TWO cheques that we are not receiving, as well as any accrued vacation pay, and we won’t see any severance. We were flat out lied to and duped. Taken advantage of. Thanks, Martin Clasky and Don Watt. Stay classy.
Employees we retold they had work until the forth quarter. Walter Energy mothballed their mine in April, but they where still paying their bills to Maple Leaf for hauling the stockpile, of which they still have five months worth of hauling… So blaming Walter Energy for their receivership is a bogus shifting of the blame IMO.
Did Maple Leaf executives start harvesting the company for their own gains, and so the bank stepped in, or is this about the bank picking winners and losers in the industry?
Saying it’s to bad for the employees, and to talk to the receivers shows little to no respect for the people that made the company work, and should be criminal.
*Carsky, not Clasky.
yjwralph, man I do sympathize for you. NUMBER of years ago I was put in the same predicament while working for a company in pr. geo. GUTLESS MGMT. came up to us one Friday morning and told us we were no longer employed and to leave the premises, no cheques, no severance, no vacation pay, even though the doors reopened again on Monday am. WE were run by a bunch of drunks and they have fallen off like flys in the last few years, sniff, sniff, god I miss them dearly. BUT don’t worry bro things work out for the better, we all found better paying jobs,better working conditions, there always is a light at the end of the tunnel, keep your head up!
Thanks, ice. I’m just answering the question that Mr. Carsky does not have the balls to… “NO, the employees that I am feigning concern about are NOT going to get paid.” We did get our paystubs, though. Just no money to go with them. What a joke. Maple Laugh indeed.
This is a golden opportunity for our illustrious MLA’s to step forward, and look at introducing legislation that ensure’s salaries, severance, holiday pay, are all first to be paid in the event of a bankruptcy.
As it now stands the owners can pay off their debt (or not) and then start over with little consequence. Some people in this burg have gone bankrupt a few times over the years.
If our MLA’s can’t bring some meaningful legislation to cover this sort of situation what good are they. You can rest assured this type of a situation never happens to Government workers, or MLA’s as they ride high above the frey.
I have no personal knowledge of how this company operated but there are reasons why the bank is at the front of the line. The operating loans or revolving lines of credit are made using the company assets as collateral. If the banks are pushed further down the line when a company gets in trouble then they will either stop making loans to small businesses or charge unmanageable interest rates to cover their exposure. They would also call the loans at the first sign of trouble even if there is a chance things could turn around, putting people out of work in some cases unnecessarily.
Although I do not condone it I can understand how some business owners are not completely above board with employees when things go south. In many cases they have put blood sweat and tears over many years building the business and are grasping at straws trying to save it when it is on its last legs.
On a different note – My husband received a letter for IWA Forest Industry Pension Plan informing him that due to the ‘Elimination of Commuted Value Payment Balance’ he would not be receiving the $19,000. left, that he wasn’t allowed to take out when he terminated his membership.
Although he would be given the ‘one time only’ option to transfer the initial payment of benefit plus interest back into the plan and he would be eligible to receive the full value monthly benefit upon retirement as early as 55. YEA RIGHT!
I don’t Know what BS people are selling, But the Maple Leaf brass where painting a rosy picture we had coal to haul till late fourth quarter, is we brought enough down the mine would reopen, the pit was ready the stock piles were just to high, we were hiring new people just days before the foreclosure, and and did not get any notice that they where mismanaged to this state. The writing was not on the WALL the staff were kept in the dark on this so that the HSBC Bank and the management of the company could defraud us out of a months wages, believe me if I had known we were skirting receivership, I for one would not have been there, supplies and parts coming in on a regular basis, no signs that bills where not getting paid, kept in the dark so that they could defraud us of the maximum amount possible when it happened.
HH2,
The writing was on the wall. The parent company of MML was Pro Trans Ventures, a public company.
Had you been reading Pro Trans website news updates and quarterly financial statements you would have seen the indications of trouble. When Pro Trans defaulted on their loan, the board and all directors resigned (June 10 ) the stock ceased trading.
The only asset of Pro Trans was MLL. The Pro Trans website was taken down.
If you search, you can find bits and pieces of info.
Unfortunate for sure, but Walters 700 layoffs in April were just the tip of the iceberg. Let’s hope the bleeding stops soon!
Yeah, sure, ImFrank, the writing was on the wall for outsiders like yourself who were not being lied to about who bought it from ProTrans and what was going to happen. Go back up and read my first comment…
Yjwralph
I did read all of the previous posts, and we need to believe a certain amount about what we hear from the bosses, however we all have access to the internet and the info was there all along.
Pro trans owned MLL until June when the payments weren’t being made, and the loan was called. The shares then transferred to the loan holder. It’s was all there……you just needed to search.
All around its a bad deal….
HSBC a few months ago closed a whole slew of accounts, line of credits, mortgages… said they no longer wanted to do business in Northern BC as it didn’t have the profit margins they were looking for. The old East India Tea Company was one of the most corrupt banks in the world. Some say they are the money laundering kings of the underworld. Its not a huge surprise that HSBC would be behind this kind of foreclosure designed to maximize their return at the expense of the working middle class.
I wonder if the payments from the mines has not cleared yet, if it is possible to redirect some of that payment amount to the employees that earned it?
Should be a law that says any payment of cash flow from regular business is secured by employees first and foremost at time of bankruptcy… any left over could then go to the bankers along with the assets. It would have no effect on bank lending, but would go a long way to economic fairness.
ImFrank..Mr. Les Dube..as we found out a month or so ago, was the arms length lender of 5Million at the beginning of this company. The agreement at the conception of Maple Leaf Loading was if the loan could not be repaid in 3 years Mr. Dube became sole owner. Mr. Dube, the man with the deep pockets was part of the deception, you can find his name all over both companies. I did search,for the past 6 months. Maybe the writing is clear to you now, however, Mr. Billions Dube was lying even after he took sole ownership. Check it out, his writing is pretty damn clear. He accepted the debt, or as stated the majority of the debt. He accepted 200 people working a full month after he took ownership, and allowed things to continue on. Mr. Dube had his hand in the whole business, this was nothing less than deception perpetrated by Darby Kreitz, Don Watt, Martin Carsky and the worst of the bunch, Mr. Les Dube!
Comments for this article are closed.