Bus line facing three lawsuits

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This article was published 02/12/2023 (644 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A bus line that transports people from Thompson to Winnipeg was hit with three lawsuits on the same day.

Several groups are seeking upwards of $400,000, collectively, from Maple Bus Lines. The groups filed statements of claim alleging unpaid loans and services.

Maple Bus Lines had not filed statements of defence by Monday.

Lori Mann, owner of the company, said Monday she hadn’t received anything on the matter and that the recent filings are related to a past director of Maple Bus Lines.

“I cannot comment on this further other than to say, we will be defending against the claims,” she wrote in an email.

All three lawsuits were filed Nov. 23 through lawyers Gregory Fleetwood and Alexa Cantor. Neither lawyer responded to interview requests by print deadline.

In one statement of claim, Exchange Group Chartered Professional Accountants alleges Maple Bus Lines owes them $42,303 for accounting services.

The company provided its services between November of 2019 and April of 2021. It issued invoices to Maple Bus Lines between January and September of 2022, according to the statement of claim.

The same filing submits Maple Bus Lines owes $13,619 to Michael Wintemute, who has an accounting designation and provided bookkeeping services to the company between November 2020 and April 2021.

“MBL (Maple Bus Lines) has neglected or refused to pay Exchange Group or Wintemute for the services,” the statement reads.

Another statement of claim alleges Maple Bus Lines owes 75 North Corp. $324,500. Maple Bus Lines obtained two loans through the corporation in 2019 and 2020, the statement reads. The loans total a combined $345,000.

The lender, 75 North Corp., demanded repayment in May of 2022. By the statement of claim’s creation date, Maple Bus Lines had paid $20,500 on the first loan and nothing on the second, the statement alleges.

John Hall, an apparent lender, is suing Maple Bus Lines for $30,000 plus interest. A court filing alleges Maple Bus Lines hasn’t paid Hall back for money he loaned in 2019 to Maple’s bus operations despite requests for payment over several years.

Maple Bus Lines began round trip service between Thompson and Winnipeg in 2018, following Greyhound Canada terminating its routes in most of Canada.

Earlier this year, protestors outside Maple’s Sherbrook Street office accused the company of not paying all employees’ wages. Mann said, at the time, employees could take their complaints to the Manitoba Labour Board.

She also said there are “two sides to every story.”

Maple Bus Lines Ltd. was sued in 2022 by both Borebank Holdings Ltd. and Pimicikamak Cree (Cross Lake) Nation.

“There are no funds available at this time in the debtor’s account(s),” a letter to the Court of King’s Bench from RBC reads in the Borebank Holdings case.

The letter is dated Jan. 27, 2023.

gabrielle.piche@winnipegfreepress.com

Gabrielle Piché
Reporter

Gabrielle Piché reports on business for the Free Press. She interned at the Free Press and worked for its sister outlet, Canstar Community News, before entering the business beat in 2021. Read more about Gabrielle.

Every piece of reporting Gabrielle produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.