Arc Productions Ltd., August 19, 2016
August 19, 2016
The Wage Earner Protection Program (WEPP)
We have received a number of questions from Arc employees about whether they should proceed with the WEPP application at this time. We recommend that you proceed with your WEPP application as soon as possible. The deadline to file the WEPP application is 56 days from the date of the receivership. The first Receivership Order was issued by the court on July 29, 2016. Therefore, the deadline to file the WEPP application is Friday, September 23, 2016. The sooner you submit your WEPP application, the sooner you will be eligible to receive a payment from this program which currently pays up to a maximum of $3,907.68 for 2016. For more information on the WEPP, please visit the Government of Canada’s website at http://www.servicecanada.gc.ca/eng/sc/wepp//index.shtml
In addition to the Representation Order, the Receiver brought a motion before the court today for approval of the sale transaction to Jam-Filled Productions of various Arc assets. This transaction was negotiated by the Receiver very quickly following the receivership of Arc. We attach a copy of the Receiver’s Second Report which describes the sale procedure and that the Receiver strongly recommended that the sale be approved. At this time, we do not know the final sale price and will let you know as soon as we can. A number of the elements of the sale transaction were “sealed” by the court as confidential until the transaction closes in order to protect certain commercially sensitive information and also to keep some aspects of the sale confidential in case the transaction does not close and a new purchaser needs to be located.
At this time, it appears that there are significantly less funds available in the estate of Arc to pay all amounts that Arc owes to its creditors, including employees. It has been reported that Grosvenor Park Media Fund LP is the first ranking secured creditor and has first priority on the collateral of Arc and that it is also facing a shortfall on the recovery of all its loan proceeds that it advanced to Arc. We will continue to monitor that situation and report further developments and information as they become known.
