Ventures West Transport

Ventures West Transport, a Sherwood Park, Alberta-based transportation company specializing in transportation across winter and ice roads in the western provinces, the Yukon and the Northwest Territories, obtained protection under the CCAA on November 29. The company is majority owned by the Tłı̨chǫ government, a First Nations organization that initially invested in the business in 2009. Since the acquisition, however, the Tłı̨chǫ government has had to advance approximately $37.6 million to support the company. The company's most significant contract has been to supply fuel to a mining operation in the Northwest Territories. Recently, the company was unsuccessful in its bid to re-win the contract for a further five-year term, and management projects that without this contract, the company's will report a loss of approximately $9.3 million for the year ending March 31, 2020. Not wanting to risk the destabilization of its other companies, the Tłı̨chǫ government has decided to cut its losses and wind-down the transportation business while under creditor protection. MNP is the monitor. Counsel is McMillan for the company, Cassels Brock for the monitor and Reynolds Mirth Richards & Farmer for CIBC, owed approximately $15.6 million.