Atcon settles debts with N.B. suppliers

Atcon Construction has settled hundreds of outstanding bills with New Brunswick suppliers since the provincial governmenthelped refinance its debts this summer.

The province's rescue package also helped several government departments and agencies get back money they were owed.

In June, the province guaranteed$50 million in loans for the Miramichi-based company, saying it would help maintain jobs.

Atcon owed more than $6.5 million, according to alist of unpaid New Brunswick creditors, which was compiled prior to the province coming to the company's rescue and obtained by CBC News.

More than 300 firms,large and small, from nearly every corner of New Brunswick, appear on the list, along with the province itself.

Atcon owed money to the Department of Business New Brunswick ($198,036), the Department of Finance ($31,358), the Department of Natural Resources ($272,958) and NB Power ($154,735), according to the list.

Atcon and government officials have declined to comment.

Other suppliers are now trying to decide whetherthey will do future business with the company.

"I can't afford it," said Jeff Magee, general manager of Moncton-based Burgess Transportation. "I can't carry invoices like that."

Burgess was owed nearly $141,000 by Atcon for several months before the province stepped in to help guarantee and refinance Acton's debts.

Largest creditors

The largest New Brunswick creditor listed was the heavy-equipment dealer Atlantic Tractors and Equipment,which supplied Atcon largely from its Bathurst dealership.

It was owed $620,000, according to the list, well ahead of the electrical supply company Harris and Roome, which carried the second largest debt at $389,467.

A spokesman for Atlantic Tractors declined to discuss its dealings with Atcon, but Harris and Roome vice-president John Moore said Atcon's bills are now "within terms" and the two continue to do business.

Gary Seely, a Rothesay businessman who sells the products of several manufacturers in the province, said he may do business again with Atcon, butwouldlikely need to see money up front.

Seely, who was owed about $12,000 in commissions on equipment sales to Atcon,travelled to Miramichi and sat in Atcon's office to get his back bills paid after hearingabout the government aid package, he said. But one of the out-of-province companies he represents is still unpaid, he added.

Other companies owed

Atcon owed money to firms large and small, from Irving Oil ($13,863) and Irving Equipment ($3,289) in Saint John, to the little Chuckwag'n Takeout ($496) in Bouctouche.

The company owed more than $60,000 to 11 New Brunswick hotels and motels and thousands more to a small number of restaurants.

Many of the bills were left over from Atcon's involvement in the four-lane highway project between Long's Creek and Edmundston.

The Coast Tire franchise in Pokiok was owed more than $43,000 for tires it sold Atcon, said owner Judy McCallister.Most of thatwent unpaid for more than a year, but McCallister saidit has since been settled she would likely do business with the company again.

In 2008, Atcon received a $13.3-million loan guarantee from the provincial governmentto help the company work on a $135-million bridge project in the Northwest Territories.