By David Wiwchar

SAN’s finances affect City budget

Dec 10, 2024 | 7:59 AM

A BC Supreme Court Justice has given the SAN Group a week-and-a-half to get their financial affairs in order, and come up with a plan to repay approximately 500 creditors.

Company owners Kamal and Suki Sanghera along with partner Iqbal Deol filed for creditor protection on November 29th in order to prepare for a sale and investment solicitation process.

Deloitte Restructuring has been appointed to find ways of repaying approximately $200 million in debt, and secure temporary financing to keep their main sawmill running to provide at least some revenue.

SAN’s main creditors are the Royal Bank of Canada, the Business Development Bank of Canada, the Canadian Western Bank, and the BC Government, but also include the City of Port Alberni, the Port Alberni Port Authority, and hundreds of suppliers.

SAN’s financial problems have also cast a dark shadow over the city’s 5-year financial plan.

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City Council started the budget process with a proposed 15.63% tax increase for 2025, but vowed to bring that down.

Now, that proposed increase could be as high as 20% with the loss of SAN Group taxes.

Mayor Sharie Minions says massive cuts could be coming.

“We’re asking staff to bring us forward a variety of potential service level reductions because we can’t forever put off capital work that needs to be done,” she said. “We cannot just continue to add to the budget so those service level discussions are going to be a starting point of looking for deeper cuts within our budget so that we can prioritize the capital work that needs to be done.”

SAN is believed to owe the city around a million dollars for this year’s taxes, and another million for 2025, but we’re awaiting the results of a Freedom of Information Act request to confirm.