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Province could settle university land sales ‘right here, right now’: MPP

Gélinas said Sudbury needs to be able to turn the page on the legacy of Laurentian’s insolvency, which has ‘hurt our community tremendously,’ but as long as creditors aren’t paid out, the issue drags on
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​A damaging period in Sudbury’s history, Nickel Belt MPP France Gélinas said Laurentian University’s 2021-2022 insolvency is something best put behind us.

However, this can’t truly happen until the university is able to fulfill its obligations under its post-insolvency plan of arrangement, notably paying out its creditors.

The deadline for Laurentian creditors to be paid is the third anniversary of its exit from insolvency, so on Nov. 28, 2025. Most creditors haven’t received any money to date.

Sales of Laurentian University land to the province are to fund payouts to the university’s creditors, but they have not yet been completed.

With the deadline now a year away, Sudbury.com has questioned Premier Doug Ford, Infrastructure Minister Kinga Surma and others about the status of sales of Laurentian University properties to the province that are to fund post-insolvency creditor payouts, but to no avail.

You can read about our efforts here to get answers from provincial politicians on the issue.

Gélinas, who was in attendance at an October press conference in Greater Sudbury where we questioned Ford about the Laurentian land sales, spoke to us about the topic over the phone a couple of days after that event.

“The whole fiasco at Laurentian University has hurt our community tremendously,” said the MPP. “We have to be able to turn the page. We have to be able to put that behind us so that Laurentian can rebuild. Why are we dragging this out for another three years? I don't understand.”

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Nickel Belt MPP France Gélinas says she doesn't understand why the province hasn't settled the Laurentian University property sales situation as of yet. Len Gillis / Sudbury.Com

Gélinas said the provincial government could “settle this right here, right now.”

Asked why she thinks the process is taking so long, Gélinas said it’s because “they (the provincial government) have a very low interest in what’s going on in Northern Ontario …They don't see this as something that needs to be settled for the good of every northerner, and it's not a priority for them.”

She said she did have a good relationship with former Colleges and Universities Minister Jill Dunlop, but Dunlop was shuffled out of the role and replaced by Nolan Quinn in the summer, and since then, there’s been “dead silence.”

When Dunlop was still in the MCU role, Gélinas said the minister told her she understood the importance of the Laurentian land sales issue, but she didn’t know when it would be brought forward.

As to how much longer Gélinas believes the process will take, she said “I don’t want to be a downer or anything, but I wouldn't be surprised if it will be up to the very last minute.”

Laurentian president: ‘That is our priority as well’

As for Laurentian University itself, we requested an interview on the topic with university president Lynn Wells late last month, but the university declined our request, saying Laurentian didn’t have an update on the sales of its land to the province.

However, this has been a frequent topic of discussion at meetings of Laurentian’s senate and board of governors. 

Wells, who only started her new job at Laurentian this past spring, provided a written update on the file at the September meeting of LU’s senate. The topic did not come up at the most recent meetings of the senate, held Oct. 15 and Nov. 19.

As of last spring, Laurentian was meeting with Infrastructure Ontario on the topic every two weeks as it conducted negotiations.

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Laurentian University President Lynn Wells declined an interview for this story, but has said the university is in regular contact with the province over the land sale issue. Heidi Ulrichsen/Sudbury.com

“We have been working collaboratively with the province to complete the sale of real estate assets,” Wells said, in her September report to LU’s senate.  “We are regularly meeting with them in order to establish the details of the transaction, which include the lease agreement, specific questions related to each property, and insurance, among other items. 

“There are many elements to this transaction and we are making progress towards our goal of completing the sales in a timely fashion. Both Laurentian and the province understand that these transactions are critical to resolving our outstanding debts to our creditors, and we are committed to concluding them by the November 2025 deadline.”

We also spoke to Wells on the issue during a September in-person interview.

In 2023, former Laurentian board chair Jeff Bangs said the university’s intention was to flow money to creditors as individual sales agreements with the Ontario government are completed, so we asked Wells about this.

“I don't think we're in a position to know that yet,” Wells said.” It will depend on the speed at which the sales take place, right? Whether the sales could happen all together. That will make a difference. If there is time in between, and we're hoping there's very little time in between, then we've been able to figure out when we're in a position to start those payouts to creditors.”

With the process dragging on, asked what she had to say to Laurentian’s creditors, Wells said, “I would say that we understand how important it is for them to get some recompense as quickly as possible. That is our priority as well.”

Fired faculty member: ‘It's two years and counting, not a single cent’

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Fabrice Colin is the president of the Laurentian University Faculty Association (LUFA). Heidi Ulrichsen/Sudbury.com

We also reached out to the president of Laurentian’s faculty union, as some members laid off during the CCAA are creditors, as well as a former professor speaking on behalf of a group of the fired faculty.

“The slow pace of negotiations with the provincial government is increasingly concerning,” said Laurentian University Faculty Association (LUFA) president Fabrice Colin, in an email to Sudbury.com.

That’s despite many terminated employees and faculty members still waiting — often in precarious financial situations — for the compensation they are rightfully owed, he said.

“We urge the provincial government to expedite these discussions and reach an agreement that allows for timely payouts, which are essential for those impacted and for securing Laurentian's future. It’s time for action to match the urgency of the need within our community.”

Eduardo Galiano-Riveros is the spokesperson for the Terminated Faculty Committee, a subset of the more than 100 professors fired by LU during the insolvency.

A Laurentian professor emeritus of physics who was terminated in 2021 as part of LU’s restructuring, Galiano-Riveros has since taken on a position as a regulator of nuclear matters in his native country of Paraguay.

Galiano-Riveros said his group is still insisting that the terminated Laurentian employees be paid their full severance, and that the federal government should step up to do this, saying the provincial government has ignored their pleas.

They’ve also asked that the jobs of those who were let go be reinstated, as well for a full public inquiry into Laurentian’s insolvency and a potential criminal investigation. 

Galiano-Riveros points out that although Laurentian’s deadline for payouts is a year from now, they actually could go before the courts for a one-year reprieve (see the default section under Laurentian’s 2022 plan of arrangement), although they’d pay a heavy PR price for that.

“It's two years and counting, not a single cent, and lives have been upended, careers have been destroyed,” Galianos-Riveros.

“In my case, I was one of the lucky ones who basically landed on my feet. But I am not representative of what happened there. Any fractional payout that comes, may be coming a little too late to rebuild lives and careers, so not a whole lot to celebrate here.”

Heidi Ulrichsen is Sudbury.com’s assistant editor. With education as one of her beats, she has been covering the intricacies of Laurentian University’s insolvency and its aftermath since it was declared nearly four years ago now, on Feb. 1, 2021.



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