the plot thickens
Canada 3000 proposal rejected
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By RICHARD BLOOM and KEITH McARTHUR
Globe and Mail Update
The Canadian Industrial Relations Board rejected an application Wednesday morning from Canada 3000 Inc. to shut down its Royal Aviation subsidiary.
The decision means Canada 3000's board of directors may now hold a vote to file for bankruptcy protection, a move president Angus Kinnear warned the CIRB about Tuesday night.
But Mr. Kinnear would not say Wednesday if he will follow through on his earlier threat to file for bankruptcy protection.
"I won't be asking the board anything. I will be reporting to the board on [Wednesday's] proceedings and we'll take it from there."
Neil Sharp, president of the Royal Airlines Pilots Association, said he is still worried about the company's threat that it could close down the entire airline.
But he said the board made the right decision.
"What this means right now is that the company doesn't have any legal right right now to lay off just the Royal group of pilots. It will have to come to some other arrangement with its various unions as to how to handle the situation which has now changed as of a few minutes ago."
Mr. Kinnear said Tuesday that unless it can shut down Royal, an airline it acquired earlier this year, Canada 3000 will be out of cash to finance its operations by Friday.
Canada 3000 also asked the Toronto Stock Exchange Tuesday to suspend trading in its shares so it can openly discuss its dire financial position. The airline said it was down to less than $1.5-million in cash on Sunday and is losing about $700,000 a day.
Whatever shall we do???