Abitibi ruling assailed
Newfoundland and Labrador called on the Harper government Friday to change corporate bankruptcy laws after it lost a major environmental appeal before the Supreme Court of Canada.
The province failed in its bid to force the newsprint giant, formerly known as AbitibiBowater Inc., to pay for an environmental cleanup, as the Supreme Court sided with the nowinsolvent company in a 7-2 ruling.
Tom Marshall, the attorney general for Newfoundland and Labrador, said the public would be upset that the Supreme Court equated regulatory orders designed to protect the public with the “ordinary claims of creditors.”
He said the Ottawa must rethink insolvency laws that essentially leave taxpayers holding the bag for pollution caused by insolvent companies. The province wanted the Supreme Court to decide whether a debtor’s statutory duty to remove environmental contamination is extinguished under Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act.