Discovery Air, parent company of Air Tindi and Great Slave Helicopters, has been granted protection from creditors by the Ontario Superior Court while it arranges for the sale of its subsidiaries.
Protection was given to Discovery under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act, which allows insolvent companies that owe creditors more than $5 million to continue business as they restructure.
Discovery stated Thursday none of its subsidiaries has filed for protection. Discovery's three Yellowknife-based companies - Air Tindi, Great Slave Helicopters and Discovery Mining Services Ltd. - will continue their normal operations.
“It's basically businesses as usual,” Al Martin, president of Air Tindi and Great Slave Helicopters, said Thursday.
Martin said there should be no interruptions to service during the restructuring.
Air Tindi runs cargo and passenger flights to Fort Simpson, Gameti, Lutsel K'e, Wekweeti and Whati, as well as charter services for mineral exploration companies, fishing and hunting lodges, paddlers and others.
The airline also provides round-the-clock medevac flights in the Northwest Territories.
In 2015, the GNWT awarded Air Tindi an eight-year air ambulance contract worth about $17.5-million.
Martin said his employees should not fear for their jobs.
“We've been holding briefings ... just to reassure people and explain what's going on, so there's no issue there,” he said.
Clairvest Group Inc., a private equity management firm based in Toronto, has made a bid for the three Yellowknife companies.
An April, 2017 Yellowknifer story reported that Clairvest and the funds it manages owned more than 90 per cent of Discovery's shares.
The firm has held a stake in Discovery since 2011.
Martin doesn't foresee any significant changes to the companies resulting from a sale to Clairvest.
“If anything, (it will be) positive for the North,” he said, because it will mean the three companies can run as a northern group, based in Yellowknife.
“We have three very strong brands here – Great Slave is coming up to 35 years old as of Friday, Tindi, we're in our 30th year now – so it's good to basically have the control of those companies in the north,” he said.
Clairvest did not respond to an interview before deadline.
This isn't the first time Discovery Air has run into financial trouble.
In 2009, the territorial government bailed out Discovery Air with a $34-million loan and a commitment from the company to relocate its headquarters from London, Ont. to Yellowknife.
Peter Arychuk founded Air Tindi with his brother Alex as in 1988, and sold it to Discovery Air in 2006.
Arychuk did not want to “rehash” the deal with Discovery Air, but said the Air Tindi continues to “provide a very good service” to NWT communities.