Hudson's Bay, Canada's oldest company, is in the process of liquidating almost all of its department stores, and creditors for its Vernon location have been left with unpaid bills from the retail giant. 

Hudson's Bay Company ULC announced it had filed for protection under the Companies' Creditor Arrangement Act (CCAA) on March 7, a move the company's president and CEO Liz Rodbell said was a "very difficult (but) necessary step." The company filed documents with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice indicating that, despite exhaustive efforts to secure sufficient financing to pursue a restructuring transaction under the CCAA, it has only secured limited debtor-in-possession financing that will require the full liquidation of the entire business.

Store liquidations are taking place at all but six Hudson's Bay stores, and none of those six stores are located in Western Canada.

Alvarez & Marshal Canada Inc. was appointed by the Ontario court as monitor of the business and financial affairs of Hudson's Bay Company. 

Alvarez & Marshal released a list that shows hundreds of creditors to which The Bay owes money as of March 7, totalling over half a billion dollars. The list does not show the full amount of The Bay's debt, as it excludes "intercompany amounts," or cases where creditors own multiple companies. 

In Vernon, the Hudson's Bay Company holds debt totalling $286,803. 

Most of that debt is owed to BentallGreenOak, which owns Vernon's Village Green Shopping Centre, where The Bay is located. BentallGreenOak is owed just under $283,000, roughly $98,000 of which is owed to one of its subsidiaries called OPTrust Retail Inc., a Canadian pension fund. 

The Bay also owes the City of Vernon $2,157, and owes Vernon-based plumbing and electrical company Brown Mechanical Services $1,692. 

The list of creditors shows a wide range of amounts owed, from the thousand-dollar range owed to Brown Mechanical to multi-million dollar debts owed to Canadian and American companies. Other countries are also represented on the creditor list, including roughly $485,000 owed to an Indian company. The B.C. government is also owed just over $683,000.

Originally established in 1670, the department store chain's history has been intertwined with Canadian history for centuries. It became the dominant fur-trading power in the Pacific Northwest by the early 19th Century.