Metroland Media Group Ltd.

We are writing to report on a number of aspects of the Metroland Proposal proceedings.

1. 1. Court Approves the Third Amended Proposal

As you are probably aware from media reports, Metroland’s Proposal in Bankruptcy was approved by the court in a decision released on January 24, 2024. The Endorsement of the Court and the court order is available here.

As we previously reported, the Proposal was accepted by the required double-majority of creditors at the creditors meeting on December 11, 2023. However, it also needs to be approved by the court before it can be implemented. On January 18, 2024, the Proposal Trustee brought a motion before Justice Kimmel of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice (Commercial List) to approve the Proposal. We supported the approval of the Proposal.

At the first motion hearing for the approval of the Proposal on January 18, 2024, the lawyers for former unionized employees (Unifor Local 87-M) had sought an adjournment of the approval motion. This request was opposed by counsel for Metroland and the Proposal Trustee, who cited the risk of bankruptcy if Metroland’s proceedings were delayed. Justice Kimmel requested further submissions from union counsel, Metroland and the Proposal Trustee, and the motion was adjourned to January 22, 2024, at which time counsel for the union advised it was no longer seeking an adjournment.

However, counsel for the union also raised objections regarding certain of the releases in the Proposal for directors, officers and affiliates of Metroland, and Justice Kimmel directed the company to provide additional submissions regarding the releases as well as narrowing the release language in the court order to parallel the language of the Proposal. At that stage, Her Honour indicated that she would approve the Proposal upon receiving the additional materials from the company.

The supplementary materials were provided by the Proposal Trustee on January 23, 2024, the court released its written decision approving the Proposal on January 24, 2024.

1. 2. “Administrative Hold” on the Wage Earner Protection Program applications

As stated in our previous update, the appointment of the receiver over certain of Metroland’s assets makes the Wage Earner Protection Program (“WEPP”) applicable to Metroland and its former employees. WEPP involves a two stage process: the receiver of Metroland (also Grant Thronton) will process the employee claims that we have submitted on behalf of the non-union employee and notify Service Canada of those accepted claims. The terminated employees can then apply for a WEPP payment.

Applications can be completed online here and the deadline to apply is Friday, February 2, 2024.

Service Canada has advised us that it placed a hold on processing Metroland WEPP applications for internal administrative reasons. The hold is expected to be lifted when the Proposal Trustee files the relevant WEPP Trustee Information Forms. We are in frequent contact with the Proposal Trustee to ensure these documents are filed as soon as possible and we will inform you of any updates.

1. 3. Correspondence from the Department of Justice Regarding their Subrogated Claim

On December 21, 2023, the Department of Justice wrote to the Proposal Trustee and informed them that Service Canada expects to be re-paid the full amount of all WEPP payments made to former employees before the employees receive any distribution on their unsecured severance claims under the Proposal, but not the unpaid pension contribution claim we submitted which is still to be paid at 100%. Given the limited funds available for distribution on unsecure claims, this approach would have a material impact on the total amounts recovered by former employees.  We currently estimate that this position would reduce net recoveries to employees by approximately $2M out of a total of $7.3M (including the amounts received from WEPP).

Under section 36(1) of the Wage Earner Protection Program Act, Service Canada has a subrogated unsecured claim for the amounts paid to former employees under WEPP. In the Proposal Trustee’s opinion and ours, this subrogated claim entitles Service Canada to recover its pro-rata share of distributions made from the Proposal at the same rate the employee would, but it does not entitle Service Canada to a full recovery.  The recovery estimates were previously provided are based on this interpretation.

The Proposal Trustee wrote to the Department of Justice and asserted our collective opinion of Service Canada’s subrogated claim, and that Service Canada would only be entitled to a pro-rata distribution of 17 cents on the dollar for the amount it pays to employees for WEPP in respect of their unsecured severance claims. This letter dated January 5, 2024, is available here.

On January 16, 2024, the Department of Justice replied to the Proposal Trustee stating Service Canada is to receive the amount of all WEPP payments made to former employees from the estate of Metroland before employees receive any distribution.

We wrote to the Department of Justice advising them of such on January 17, 2024, which is linked here.

Given the dispute, we requested that the Proposal Trustee bring a motion for the court to rule on the correct interpretation. This motion is set to be heard on April 8, 2024.  Given the amount at stake for the non-union employees (approximately $2M), we plan to participate in this motion and make a submission for the employees.

Wage Earner Protection Program Application – deadline is Friday, February 2, 2024

On December 8, 2023, CIBC, a secured creditor in these proceedings, appointed Grant Thornton Limited as a receiver over certain assets of Metroland. A copy of the receiver appointment is attached here.

In our view, this receivership makes the Wage Earner Protection Program (“WEPP“) applicable to Metroland and its former employees under subsections 2(3) and 5(1)(b)(ii) of the Wage Earner Protection Program Act. WEPP is a federal program that provides a payment to eligible employees who were terminated during the insolvency proceedings of their employer and have unpaid wages and severance pay owing to them. In 2023, eligible employees can receive a WEPP payment of up to $8,278.83 toward their claim for unpaid wages and severance pay.

As per section 9(1)(c) of the Wage Earner Protection Program Regulations, employees can apply for a WEPP payment within 56 days of the appointment of the receiver. The deadline to apply is Friday, February 2, 2024.

WEPP Applications can be completed online using this link: here.

Please use the following information to assist you in completing the application:

• Estate No.: 31459718
• Former Address of the Employer:
  8 Spadina Ave., 10^th Floor, Toronto ON
  M5V 0S8
• Trustee Telephone No:
  (416) 366 0100
• Date of Employer’s Receivership:
  December 8, 2023
• Submission of Proof of Claim to Trustee/Receiver Responsible for the Estate of your Former Employer:
  On December 10, 2023, Koskie Minsky LLP filed an Omnibus Proof of Claim on behalf of all non-union employees. We have been revising individual employee claim amounts in the Omnibus Proof of Claim as more individual information is provided to us.

Note: If you have already submitted your WEPP application and provided any information that differs from what is listed above, please call the WEPP Information Line (1-866-683-6516) with your application tracking number to advise Service Canada of the discrepancy and to correct your application, as necessary.

We are writing to provide an update on the Metroland Proceedings since the Third Amended Proposal was accepted at the Meeting of Creditors on December 11, 2023.

Former Employees May Apply for a Payment under the Wage Earner Protection Program

In addition to its role as Proposal Trustee, Grant Thornton Limited was appointed as a Receiver over certain of Metroland’s assets on December 8, 2023.

In our view, under subsections 2(3) and 5(1)(b)(ii) of the Wage Earner Protection Program Act (the “Act“), the appointment of a receiver makes the Wage Earner Protection Program (“WEPP”) applicable to Metroland and its former employees. WEPP is a federal program that provides a payment to eligible employees who were terminated during the insolvency proceedings of their employer for unpaid wages and severance pay owing to them. In 2023, eligible employees can receive a WEPP payment of up to $8,278.83 toward their claim for unpaid wages and severance pay.

Former employees can apply for WEPP if they meet the following criteria:

• Their employment has ended;
• They are owed wages, vacation pay, termination pay or severance pay from Metroland; and
• The amounts owed were earned during the eligibility period or, in the case of termination pay or severance pay, their employment was terminated either during the eligibility period or prior to the discharge of the Receiver

Service Canada will review each application and determine whether an employee is eligible to receive a WEPP payment. Note, under section 6 of the Act, the following individuals may not be eligible if, during the period for which they are owed eligible wages:

• They were an officer or a director of Metroland;
• They had a controlling interest in the business of Metroland;
• They were a manager whose responsibilities included:

o Making binding financial decisions impacting the business of Metroland, and/or
o Making binding decisions on the payment or non-payment of wages; and/or

• They were not dealing at arm’s length with any of these persons.

WEPP Applications can be completed online here.

Note: The application will require Metroland’s estate number. When prompted, please enter the following, without any dashes: 31459718

Application to Court to Approve Metroland’s Proposal on January 18, 2024

As previously reported, Metroland’s Third Amended Proposal passed the requisite vote of creditors at the Creditors’ Meeting on December 11, 2023. In order to proceed to implementation, the Third Amended Proposal must also be approved by the Court.

The application to the Ontario Superior Court of Justice requesting approval of the Third Amended Proposal has been scheduled for January 18, 2024, at 11:00 AM ET. A copy of the Notice of Hearing from the Proposal Trustee is linked here. We will post the Court materials when we receive them.

Representative Counsel will attend the application hearing and provide non-union employees an update regarding its outcome.

A Meeting of Creditors was held today to consider the Revised Proposal in Bankruptcy of Metroland Media Group Ltd. (“Metroland”). Koskie Minsky LLP is the court-appointed Representative Counsel to the non-unionized employees and voted in favour of the revised Proposal. The Proposal Trustee reported that the requisite double-majority of creditor votes was achieved, and the Proposal passed the vote.

The Revised Proposal contains a condition precedent that relates to the obtaining of additional payments from the Wage Earner Protection Program (“WEPP”) for all the terminated employees. WEPP is an important program of the federal government for employees that currently pays up to $8278.83 to each eligible terminated employee in respect of unpaid wages and severance pay. Representative Counsel is continuing to work actively with the company and the Proposal Trustee to confirm that WEPP applies to these proceedings and hopes to have that confirmed soon.

To view the Media Release about this development, please click here.

On December 10, 2023, from 3 P.M. ET to 5 P.M. ET, Koskie Minsky LLP will host a virtual information session for non-unionized employees and retirees in advance of the upcoming Meeting of Creditors scheduled for December 11.

In the session, Representative Counsel will review the claims of the non-union employees and retirees and provide a recommendation on how to vote on the Second Amended Proposal.

Click here to register for this information session.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email with a link for the meeting.

We are pleased to report that by the Order of Justice Barbara Conway of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice (Commercial List) dated December 7, 2023, our firm has been appointed as Representative Counsel to non-unionized Metroland retirees whose entitlement to post-retirement benefits were terminated on September 30, 2023.

If you are a non-unionized Metroland retiree and are owed post-retirement benefits from Metroland, please contact our firm by emailing metrolandemployees@kmlaw.ca as soon as possible.

On September 30, 2023, Metroland terminated the post-retirement benefits of non-unionized employees and retirees. Although the non-union retirees have a claim for these benefits, they are not represented in the ongoing proceedings. On December 7, 2023, our firm will bring a motion to a Judge presiding over the Ontario Superior Court (Commercial List) to include non-union retirees under our mandate as Representative Counsel. This will ensure retirees have representation to prepare and advance their claims and vote as a group at the upcoming Meeting of Creditors.

Please see the attached Motion Record filed in support of the motion to include retirees under the mandate of Representative Counsel.

Metroland Media Group Ltd. – Status Report

We are writing with a status report on the Metroland bankruptcy proposal, and a review of several issues we identified from the non-union employees’ perspective.

1. The calculation of the non-union employees’ claims under the initial Proposal was incorrect

In the initial Proposal, the Proposal Trustee (Grant Thornton Limited) included a total amount of the non-union employees’ severance claim to be approximately $14M. They advised us that figure was calculated by Metroland staff and was solely based on minimum notice standards under the Ontario Employment Standards Act, 2000, SO 2000, c 41 (“ESA“). They provided us with an Excel file with their calculations. In reviewing that file, we found a number of errors and omissions that undercalculated the employees’ claims, in particular:

• • Misapplication of the mass termination provisions under the ESA;
  • No inclusion of common law notice of termination; and
  • The amount of pension contributions was incorrect and was included as an unsecured claim together with termination pay;  under section 60(1.5) of the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act, R.S.C. 1985, c B-3, claims for unpaid pension contributions operate to rank in priority in a Proposal and therefore are to be paid at 100 cents/dollar ahead of unsecured claims.

In addition to the applicable legal principles in the statute and case law, we reviewed numerous employment contracts, previous termination letters, and other employment related documents that were sent to us by employees.

The errors we identified led to prolonged negotiations with the lawyers for Metroland and the Proposal Trustee regarding the employee severance pay calculations. They eventually agreed to include common law severance and the pension contribution claim as a priority claim. The employee claim amount has therefore increased substantially, which should translate into increased recoveries for the employees.

We understand a revised, increased employee claim amount will be reflected in an updated Proposal presented in advance of the Creditors’ Meeting on December 11, 2023. We have not yet seen nor agreed to the revised amount, as discussions about certain details of the employee claim are still continuing. We will be in touch with you shortly about the revised claim amounts.

Please also note that we do not yet have updated information of the amount of other creditors’ claims (which may also be changing), and as such we cannot yet report with precision what recovery the employees can expect to be paid from the Proposal. We will report on this as soon as possible.

We will provide our advice to you about whether to vote for the Proposal before the Creditors’ Meeting on December 11, 2023.

2.The initial Proposal’s timing for a WEPP motion disadvantaged employees, and has now been changed

The Wage Earner Protection Program (“WEPP”) is a government program that automatically applies when an employer who is subject to a bankruptcy or receivership, terminates their employees without paying severance pay and certain other amounts owing to them. WEPP pays each eligible employee up to a maximum of $8278.83. Such a payment would be in addition to what employees would be paid from Metroland’s Proposal.

However, WEPP does not apply automatically under a Proposal and in order for it to apply, a motion must be brought before the court to issue an order that it applies.

In the initial Proposal, Metroland stated it would apply to court for a declaration that WEPP applies after the Proposal passes a vote of creditors. We told the Proposal Trustee and company lawyers this approach has two major problems: (i) it delays WEPP payments to employees; and (ii) it prolongs the uncertainty as to whether WEPP would be available for the employees. In extensive negotiations, we argued that the motion for a declaration that WEPP applies should be brought before the creditors vote on the Proposal. The Proposal Trustee and company lawyers eventually agreed.

Metroland was scheduled to bring the WEPP motion on November 28, 2023. However, the Department of Justice Canada contacted counsel for Metroland the day before and advised it would object to Metroland’s WEPP motion because Metroland was planning to continue to operate its business, albeit in a downsized form, which would not meet the criteria for WEPP to apply.  The motion was therefore adjourned to December 7, 2023, at 12 pm ET. Given the opposition from the Department of Justice and as per our recommendation, Metroland arranged for a receiver to be appointed (also Grant Thornton) over a Metroland account to create a receivership and thus make WEPP automatically apply. The motion by Metroland on December 7, 2023, has been revised for it to seek an order confirming that WEPP will apply and to ensure former employees are eligible to apply for it.

A copy of Metroland’s motion record can be accessed here.  If the requested order is issued by the court and Justice Canada does not oppose, the employees will be eligible to apply for a WEPP payment, separate from the funds that may be recovered from the Proposal.

3.If the Proposal passes and a bankruptcy of Metroland is avoided, the following potential legal claims would not be pursued:

Terminated employees have a potential “common employer” claim against Torstar

The law states that an employee can have more than one employer, and other entities in a corporate “web” of companies can be held responsible for the debts of other companies for amounts owing to employees. Many of you have provided evidence that demonstrates a relationship between Metroland and Torstar and the common control over those companies. If successful, a common employer claim could yield additional recoveries for the employees.  As part of Metroland’s Proposal, Torstar is seeking a full release of claims that could be made against it. If the Proposal passes, the release will operate to protect Torstar from litigation such as a common employer claim from terminated Metroland employees.

The proceeds of the sale of Metroland assets that were used to repay Canso may be a preferential payment that can be legally challenged in a bankruptcy, but not in the Proposal

The report of the Proposal Trustee dated October 17, 2023, discusses the arbitration decision of the litigation dispute between Jordan Bitove and Paul Rivett that led to a sale of Metroland’s assets which generated $27.5M, and which was then used to repay the loan from Canso.  Canso is the lender who loaned money to Nordstar, the entity operated at the time by Bitove and Rivett that acquired Torstar and its subsidiary, Metroland. The Proposal Trustee has not done a close analysis on the viability of legally challenging this payment as an unlawful “preference” that has the effect of defeating the claims of creditors of Metroland, which became insolvent after the sale of its assets and the payment to Canso. If the Proposal passes, this potential claim would not be pursued. In a bankruptcy, the trustee can be directed to pursue this claim and if successful, such a challenge could yield additional recoveries for all creditors.

Torstar’s unsecured claim against Metroland may be classified as an equity claim, which has the lowest priority for recovery  

Torstar is claiming to be owed $35M for amounts it says it loaned to Metroland. Under the Proposal, Torstar would waive this claim, making more of the Proposal funds available for all creditors. However, in a bankruptcy, Torstar says it would assert this claim, thereby diluting recoveries to all creditors. In our view, this different approach by Torstar is designed to encourage creditors to vote for the Proposal and avoid a bankruptcy of Metroland.  However, under insolvency law, Torstar’s debt claim may be characterized as an equity claim, not a debt claim, and if so, it would rank at the bottom of the creditor recovery hierarchy that says equity claims can only be paid after all other creditors are paid in full. If so, Torstar would not dilute creditors’ claims in a bankruptcy, and a bankruptcy may be more attractive than the Proposal. We have asked for additional information from the Proposal Trustee about Torstar’s debt, however, the information that has been provided to date is incomplete and not determinative of the issue from a legal perspective.

We trust the above is helpful at this time. If you have any questions, please contact us by email at metrolandemployees@kmlaw.ca.

We will report further soon.

We have received many documents and agreements from employees that relate to the amounts owing to them from Metroland. However, we are still missing information and do not have a complete set of documents that are required to determine all the components of the employee claims. We sent the following list to the company and Proposal Trustee (Grant Thornton Limited), and we are continuing to wait for the requested documents and information.

• • Employment agreements
  • Minutes of Settlement if you were terminated with a settlement
  • Releases if you were terminated with a release
  • Voluntary Departure Program (“VDP”) agreements
  • A copy of the Vertical Share Plan
  • Copies of a post-retirement benefits plan or policy

While we await information from the company and Proposal Trustee, please review the list and if you have any such information, please send it to us as soon as possible. For those of you who have sent in documents already, we thank you.

We are pleased to report that our effort to adjourn the creditors meeting scheduled for today, in order to allow the WEPPA application to the court to proceed first was achieved today.

The Proposal Trustee (Grant Thornton Limited) called the First Meeting of Creditors to order and at our request, and that of the union, then sought a resolution to postpone a vote on the Proposal and reschedule the creditors meeting. The resolution was passed. The next Meeting of Creditors has been scheduled for Monday, December 11, 2023, at 9:30 am ET. The application to the court for the WEPPA declaration is tentatively set for November 28, 2023. We will report further developments shortly.

We are writing with a status report on the Metroland bankruptcy proposal since our appointment as Representative Counsel to the non-union terminated Metroland employees on October 13, 2023.

As you know, on September 15, 2023, over 600 Metroland union and non-union employees were terminated en masse without being paid any severance pay and other amounts owing to them. There are approximately 562 non-union employees in our mandate as Representative Counsel.

The Proposal was released on October 17, 2023. The Proposal Trustee (Grant Thornton Limited) also set a date for a vote by creditors on the Proposal for Tuesday, November 14, 2023. Both the company and Proposal Trustee are pressing to move the Proposal forward very quickly.  As we explained on our past Zoom calls with employees, according to the Proposal Trustee, the Proposal is to pay employees approximately 13 cents on the dollar of their claims and later, if the WEPPA payment from the federal government is held to apply, WEPPA could increase the total payment to around 26 cents on the dollar.  We caution that those estimated recovery rates are only estimates and could change materially.

We have identified many issues that we have raised with the company and Proposal Trustee with respect to: the non-union employees’ claims, the WEPPA application timing and process, certain terms of the Proposal, and the proposed payment from the Proposal in respect of employees’ amounts that are owing to them. We are in discussions with the company and its representatives virtually every day on these issues. We have also requested more information from the company lawyers and Proposal Trustee that pertains to the employees’ claims, other creditors’ claims and recoveries from Metroland assets, some of which we have received and others we are still waiting for.

At this point, we cannot yet advise the non-union employees whether or not to vote in favour of the Proposal. We have also discussed the status of the Proposal with the Union lawyers, and we have jointly requested that the creditors meeting for November 14, 2023 be adjourned, especially so that the WEPPA application to court can proceed first, ahead of a vote on the Proposal. WEPPA is discussed further below.

The Proposal Trustee has confirmed that on November 14, 2023, it will call the scheduled meeting to order to seek a resolution to adjourn the First Meeting of Creditors. We will vote to adjourn the meeting. You are not required to attend this meeting, but if you wish to do so, please register here by November 13, 2023 at 12 PM ET.

Please see this link to the Proposal Trustee’s website where they provide notice of the adjournment request:

Please be advised that the Proposal Trustee has been requested by a number of creditors that at the First Meeting of Creditors taking place on November 14, 2023, the Proposal Trustee seek a resolution for an adjournment of the meeting in advance of a vote on the Amended Proposal.  Accordingly, at the First Meeting of Creditors, the Proposal Trustee will be seeking a resolution to adjourn the meeting.  It is the intention of the Proposal Trustee to call the First Meeting of Creditors to order at the specified time to among other things, review the Amended Proposal and seek any questions from creditors.  Notwithstanding the request for an adjournment, creditors are still required to file a proof of claim in advance of the meeting scheduled for November 14, 2023 in order to be eligible to vote at the First Meeting of Creditors or any subsequent reconvened meeting.  However, as set out in the Proposal Trustee’s report, failure to file a claim in advance of the First Meeting of Creditors does not preclude creditors from participating in a distribution under the Amended Proposal.

For the non-union employee claims, we are working on the following:

1. WEPPA Application: WEPPA does not apply automatically in a Proposal, as it does in a bankruptcy or receivership. For a Proposal, a court must declare that WEPPA applies. We, or the company, are therefore required to bring an application to the court for a declaration that former Metroland employees are eligible to apply for payments under the Wage Earner Protection Program Act (“WEPPA”). It is our position that this application should be brought now, before a creditors’ meeting to vote on the Proposal, so that the employees will have certainty about whether or not they are eligible to apply for WEPPA. If the court declares former employees can apply for WEPPA, that will facilitate a payment of up to $8300 per employee fairly quickly. That payment would be in addition to the amounts payable from the Proposal, if the Proposal passes at a future creditors’ meeting. Currently, the Proposal says the company will apply for a WEPPA declaration only if the Proposal passes which (assuming it is successful) would delay WEPPA payments to employees. Also, if the WEPPA application is made after the Proposal is approved, and the application is denied by the Courts and/or Service Canada, the entitlement to payments under WEPPA may be permanently lost.  Accordingly, we disagreed with that approach due to the uncertainty and payment delays for employees. The motion before the court for a declaration that employees can apply for payments under WEPPA is tentatively scheduled for November 28, 2023. As mentioned above, for the court to hear a WEPPA application before the proposal is voted on, it was necessary to adjourn the creditors’ meeting.
2. Calculation of Employee Severance Claims: The Proposal Trustee calculated the non-union employees’ claim in its Proposal documents to be a total of $14M and they argued that employees’ severance claim should only be based on the Ontario Employment Standards Act.(“ESA”) We disagreed and it is our position that the employees are also entitled to a common law severance claim, which for the majority of employees, generates a higher severance claim. We have also received many Metroland employment agreements sent to us by employees that in our view are not confined to ESA only. We recalculated the severance claim of the employees, on a preliminary basis, and found the total claim of the non-union employees, based on Common Law, to be in the range of $22M to$25M. We will be submitting a preliminary Proof of Claim to the Proposal Trustee in the amount of $25M and will refine the claim over the next few weeks. We will also send each employee a breakdown of their claim for any data or other corrections that we will pass on to the Proposal Trustee, prior to any distribution from the Proposal if it passes a vote at a future meeting.
3. Pension Contribution Priority: We identified that the amount of the company’s pension contributions owing during the severance period (approximately $170,000) is a priority under section 60(1.5) the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act and is to be paid in full before any other creditors’ claim. We believe the Proposal Trustee has accepted our position and will designate this amount as a priority payment.
4. Additional Information Requested: As noted above, we are examining other aspects of the Metroland situation, and we have asked for more information from the Proposal Trustee which we received this past Friday. We will report further on these aspects shortly.

Request for Email Addresses

Our firm will be contacting each non-union terminated employee with respect to their claims shortly. Communication from our firm will be provided by both, electronic and postal mail. Although we have email addresses for some non-union employees, we are missing email addresses for many individuals. Please ensure our firm has your email address by contacting metrolandemployees@kmlaw.ca as soon as possible.

On October 25, 2023, from 10:00 A.M. ET to 12:00 P.M. ET, Koskie Minsky LLP will host a virtual information session on the bankruptcy proposal proceeding of Metroland for former non-union employees.

The session will review the Proposal of the Proposal Trustee, its impact on the claims of non-union employees, and the upcoming Meeting of Creditors.

To ensure the session proceeds as scheduled, please submit your questions in advance by emailing metrolandemployees@kmlaw.ca by 12:00 P.M. ET on October 24, 2023.

To register for this information session, please click on the link below:

Non-Union employees are invited to a Zoom meeting.
When: Oct 25, 2023 10:00 AM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Register in advance for this meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIkf-qhrDgrH9UMRKaX4xcQPvI4Bi5lEVNN

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

As per the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act, The Proposal Trustee, Grant Thornton Limited, filed a proposal (the “Proposal”) with the Official Receiver. The Proposal outlines the assets and liabilities of Metroland and provides a list of creditors affected by the bankruptcy proposal proceeding. KM, as representative counsel to all non-union terminated Metroland employee, is reviewing the Proposal.

Please see the attached Proposal Creditor Package.

KM will vote on the Proposal a general meeting of creditors held on November 14, 2023, at 9:30 AM via Video Conference.

We are pleased to report that by Order of Justice Peter Osborne of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice (Commercial List) dated October 13, 2023, our firm has been appointed as Representative Counsel to all the non-union terminated employees in the bankruptcy proposal proceeding of Metroland. We understand that Metroland will be presenting a Proposal to all its creditors within the next few days. We will correspond with you further when we receive and review a copy of the Proposal.

Please see the attached Notice of Appointment of Representative Counsel that was approved by the Court. As stated in the court Order, Metroland will be paying the non-union employees’ legal costs up to $100,000. Terminated employees do not need to pay any fees to our firm at this time.

If you do not wish to be represented by KM in the bankruptcy proposal proceeding of Metroland, you have the option to opt out and if so, you must provide a notice in writing to our firm at metrolandemployees@kmlaw.ca and the proposal trustee, Grant Thornton Limited at metroland@ca.gt.com by 5:00 pm ET Tuesday, October 24, 2023.