Canadian Pacific the sole hold out in Lac-Megantic settlement
by Canadian Manufacturing.com Staff
Disaster settlement fund grows to $435 million in spite of Canadian Pacific as community tries to rebuild
LAC-MÉGANTIC, QC—Canadian Pacific continues to defy the call to contribute funds to aid the victims of the train derailment in Lac-Megantic that left 47 dead and much of the town destroyed in 2013, according to Rochon Genova LLP, a firm that filed a class action suit on behalf of the victims.
With a US$110 million contribution from World Fuel Services, the company which owned the fuel shipment, the current value of the settlement fund is now approximately $435 million. Canadian Pacific remains the sole hold out defendant and, through a series of complex motions, has threatened to challenge the legitimacy of the bankruptcy process established in August 2013, the firm said. Those motions are scheduled to be heard next week in Sherbrooke, Québec.
While Canadian Pacific has taken these aggressive procedural steps, the people of Lac Megantic remain hopeful that Canadian Pacific and the New York based hedge fund that controls it, will make a near term offer of compensation so that the community can continue to rebuild their town and lives, Rochon Genova said.
