Bowen Island Economic Development Committee chair Gordon Ganong told council that, while there’s no remedy for the Bowen creditors who are facing major losses because Wakefield Construction has filed for creditor protection, the committee hopes that education can help these businesses navigate the situation.
“As Chair, I plan to include in the Feb EDC agenda that it organize educational sessions for Bowen businesses to provide skills training specifically regarding extension of credit, invoicing, collections and their legal rights in contractual arrangements,” Ganong told council. “The objective of this would be to help Bowen businesses to minimize their exposure in the future to incidents like the Wakefield one.”
Ganong added that a he hopes a bankruptcy professional could be made available to creditors to answer questions for a half-day session.
“Then all of them would be receiving the same information regarding their rights and options going forward with this bankruptcy,” said Ganong.
Wakefield Construction informed its employees on Bowen Island that it was going into receivership on January 9. The company owes more than $400,000 in unpaid invoices to Bowen Island businesses.
