Accountants now running Lighthouse Supported Living after court places non-profit in receivership

A Saskatoon judge has placed the Lighthouse Supported Living in receivership and appointed chartered accounting firm MNP Ltd. to take over operations of the troubled non-profit.

In February, Justice Allisen Rothery appointed MNP as interim receiver to audit the Lighthouse's books to figure out how the organization ended up in its current dire financial straits. At that point, it was uncertain whether the non-profit could even meet its payroll obligations.

MNP was due to submit its findings to the court this week.

During a court hearing in February, Wayne Pederson, a lawyer speaking on behalf of Affinity Credit Union, said the Lighthouse owed the credit union $2.3 million. The non-profit also has a line of credit with Affinity.

On Thursday, Rothery accepted an application by Affinity Credit Union to place the Lighthouse in full receivership.

This significantly expands MNP's powers to run it. It also casts doubt on the Lighthouse's future.

"The Lighthouse really is a very, very good organization that has a very strong history," said lawyer Andrew Mason, who represents two of the Lighthouse board members.

"It has over 100 employees serving the marginalized people of the city and surrounding area for over 20 years now and it's very unfortunate, very sad to see it go this way, but hopefully at the end of the day the Lighthouse and its funders will see the value of keeping the organization going."

The receivership order will allow MNP to do everything from selling assets to managing the day-to-day operations.

In 2021, a report by Justice David Gerecke ordered that then-executive director Don Windels be removed because of questionable financial dealings.

In March, the Court of Appeal ruled that Windels was not given a fair hearing before his dismissal from the position he held for two decades.