waterway housboats likley going into receivership

[Joe Black]

Not official yet, but may be by end of day tomorrow

[BuckCuller]

Was it mismanagement?
Or a combination of lost Alberta revenue and carbon tax pricing.

[Blastoff]

According to the website looks like tomorrow they are done!! Bank is moving in.

[Atlas12]

Originally Posted by BuckCuller

Was it mismanagement?
Or a combination of lost Alberta revenue and carbon tax pricing.

A very quick google says it was because they sued anyone and everyone over a creek that flooded in 2012.

Didn't get as much as they expected, but the lawyers surely did.

[Gramps.257]

Originally Posted by BuckCuller

Was it mismanagement?
Or a combination of lost Alberta revenue and carbon tax pricing.

Huge flood took them out in 2012 and they just won pennys in a court case. To bad for the local economy in the shuswap. We had human waste washing up on our beach for 2 years after the flood and took 5 years of work to repair the damage to our summer property.

[BuckCuller]

Originally Posted by Atlas12

A very quick google says it was because they sued anyone and everyone over a creek that flooded in 2012.

Didn't get as much as they expected, but the lawyers surely did.

Sounds like a series of unfortunate events starting with a previous flood then a private bridge then a second flood and a pickup truck.
Waist of time and money with all the law suits.

Should have bought the extra insurance I guess.

[Atlas12]

Originally Posted by BuckCuller

Sounds like a series of unfortunate events starting with a previous flood then a private bridge then a second flood and a pickup truck.
Waist of time and money with all the law suits.

Should have bought the extra insurance I guess.

The BC Supreme Court decision was a really interesting read.
They more or less agreed with Waterways that there was negligence involved in the flood, but they didn't agree with the ~$7 million in damages they were seeking. They ended up being awarded ~$1.7 million, after it was reduced for partial liability on Waterways part.

[omega50]

Not sure about Waterways, but in the early 90s years my buddy owned 3 new luxury houseboats and leased them to Three Buoys in Sicamous.He owned a company that supplied the catering and housekeeping for the Rapattack Base in Salmon Arm.His staff stayed on his boats early and late season.
Made some decent coin.
Makes me wonder if Waterways was leasing their boats.

[CranePete]

Global tonight reported that they’re done. No word on deposits being returned. Images of boats being pulled out and set in “dry dock”. Crappy.

[Passthru]

If anybody’s interested:

As many of you will be aware, Waterway has been a part of the fabric this community for over 50 years. As you may also be aware, Waterway suffered a devastating Flood in 2012, and since that time, the Waterway team has done an exceptional job in a very difficult situation, keeping the company operating and even growing. We celebrated our 50th anniversary last year with a sense of optimism and pride in what we had accomplished. The devastating flood that occurred in 2012 put us on our heels but with the help of very able legal counsel we pursued an action in damages against the Province, the District of Sicamous and the neigbouring landowners whose bridge was instrumental in damaging our property. After a 61 day trial, the BC Supreme Court issued its judgment on April 16, 2019. While we won every factual aspect of the of the case related to the flood, the Court did not side with us on damages. We had been anticipating a substantial monetary award that would make us whole. Our able counsel was also optimistic that this would be the case. Sadly the actual award of damages is several million dollars less than we had expected.

In our view, there are clear errors in judgment regarding the amount of the award. While we feel that we have a very good case to rectify this upon appeal, that process could take approximately 2 years and it could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. In addition, the Province is counter appealing which we believe is simply a tactical move. Our Bank, CIBC, had been supportive of this process and we believed they would carry us through to the end of the process. However, given the relatively small amount of the judgment, CIBC appears to have given up on the process.

Given this, we wish to advise you that an Application for the Appointment of a Receiver is being made against Waterway by CIBC which is scheduled to be heard in the Vancouver Court on Tuesday June 11, 2019.

Our expectation is that the Court will grant the Application and as a result, Waterway will be in Receivership on June 11, 2019. Once Waterway is in Receivership, Company Management will no longer be in control of Waterway or Waterway's assets.

While it will be up to the Receiver whether they continue to operate the business of the Waterway or shut down operations, our understanding, based on recent discussions, is that the Bank's receiver will likely not operate the business of Waterway. Up until a few days ago, we were very optimistic that in the event that CIBC decided to appoint a receiver, the receiver would operate the business at least through to the end of the 2019 sailing season to preserve Waterway's value.

The decision of CIBC to proceed with the Receivership Application is extremely disappointing to us. We have been working diligently and cooperatively with the CIBC over the past several months implementing our financial restructuring strategy. We are of the view that our strategy would have been successful if we were afforded the required time and support for full implementation. Unfortunately, the CIBC does not appear to agree with us.

Our obvious preference is that a Receiver not be appointed. Regrettably, we are not in control of that decision. We no longer have the working capital to operate the business so without the Bank's support to fund the operations of Waterway, we cannot realistically oppose the receivership application. Notwithstanding this development, Waterway will work cooperatively with the Receiver to facilitate a smooth transition to the extent practicable. We will also explore the alternatives with respect to our appeal of the judgment. There may still be a substantially recovery there and we're advised that if the Bank won't fund that appeal, there may be methods for us to take that over.

We know that this unfortunate series of events will be devastating for our employees, our customers and our suppliers. It is devastating for us as well, as we have lost a life's work. We are hopeful that the assets of Waterway will realize a substantial value so that at least some of the loses can be recouped.

We hope the public will understand this very unfortunate situation.

[Joe Black]

Originally Posted by omega50

Not sure about Waterways, but in the early 90s years my buddy owned 3 new luxury houseboats and leased them to Three Buoys in Sicamous.He owned a company that supplied the catering and housekeeping for the Rapattack Base in Salmon Arm.His staff stayed on his boats early and late season.
Made some decent coin.
Makes me wonder if Waterways was leasing their boats.

All the boats were privately owned, and managed by waterways. Waterways were kinda like property managers.

So waterways really only owned the land(???) docks, and buildings.

Bank doesn't get the boats, so there May be quite a few for sale in the next few months.

Not real easy to rent out a houseboat without being setup for it.

[R3illy]

I've used waterways 5 times and always had a good time. It's pretty shady they kept taking peoples money up until they did. Lots of ****ed off people paid by email transfers who will be out minimum 5000 up to 12000 or more.

[Joe Black]

Originally Posted by CranePete

Global tonight reported that they’re done. No word on deposits being returned. Images of boats being pulled out and set in “dry dock”. Crappy.

All rentals needed to be paid in full 90 days before you sailed, so they had the entire summers income in their possession when this happened.( I figure about 2.5 millski). So the comment about"no working capital" is interesting. Did the owner squirle it away into another account, or did CIBC get all the prepayments into their accounts( line of credits or whatever) and decided not to put the expense into providing the services for the summer, in order to minimize their losses ?

Only refunds available are through credit card insurance, if you paid that way. Owners are nowhere in the picture to be contacted now. Only the receiver is answering questions, and they stated they will not continue the business, and will not refund, as they do not have the funds.

Payments by cash, cheque, or email, you just got screwed.

[R3illy]

read an article this morning that put a lot of blame on Alberta's economy. They stated their season this year wasnt looking to be that good.

[BuckCuller]

Originally Posted by R3illy

read an article this morning that put a lot of blame on Alberta's economy. They stated their season this year wasnt looking to be that good.

Rysz said factors outside the community’s control such as the downturn in the Alberta economy and the inter-provincial pipeline dispute have taken a toll on the community.

It also seem like there was some shady stuff going on. Instead of asking for a deposit this year they wanted full payment even though they knew they were in trouble.
Nobody will be refunded.

[Grizzly Adams]

Originally Posted by CranePete

Global tonight reported that they’re done. No word on deposits being returned. Images of boats being pulled out and set in “dry dock”. Crappy.

Read the comments to that story. Not exactly charitable.

Grizz

[Dean2]

Don't know these guys but based on experience and on how this went down, these guys are Class A Douche bags. They knew they were in deep trouble, they knew the bank was moving to to seize their assets. To ask for full payment up front is outright theft. I will bet any money that there is a big chunk of money sitting offshore somewhere that is creditor proof.

I feel sorry for anyone that got taken trusting these bandits. On top of the clients, the boat owners, suppliers, employees and even the Bank are all going to get royally shafted.