Arthur Robert Griffiths, the former owner of the Vancouver Canucks, has filed for creditor protection in an attempt to reach a settlement with creditors and get out of debt without declaring bankruptcy.

According to documents filed Monday with the Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy Canada, Griffiths, the former local sports mogul and scion of a famed B.C. business family, has liabilities of $2,092,577 and total assets of $36,970.

On Tuesday, Griffiths told The Province that his current situation was largely the result of bad business deals.

“It’s mostly associated with a company I was involved with,” Griffiths said. “The directors of that company left me holding the bag, and they left the country.”

Griffiths said he has been living in Vancouver for about a year now, after some time overseas.

He said he has not declared bankruptcy, but has filed a commercial proposal, which is an attempt to reach a settlement to pay back his creditors.

“The amount of the obligations are amortized over a period of time, and a proposal has been made based on the ability to support those payments,” he said.

If Griffiths’ creditors vote to accept the proposal, he will pay them an agreed-upon amount over the next five years.

If more than half the creditors vote to reject the proposal, Griffiths will go into bankruptcy. This kind of commercial proposal is available only if the debtor is insolvent, said Bill Millar, assistant superintendent of the Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy.

This week’s proposal was filed by Griffiths’ appointed trustee, Abakhan & Associates, a B.C.-based debt-relief firm.

George Abakhan, the person responsible for Griffiths’ file, said: “Mr. Griffiths has filed it on the basis that he anticipates it will be (accepted). He’s certainly giving as much money as he possibly can under his present circumstances.”

“This is kind of the end of the road, really,” said Abakhan.

Griffiths’ Statement of Affairs, filed Monday with the Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy, lists 11 creditors, including the Canada Revenue Agency, HSBC Bank Canada, and Coast Capital Savings Credit Union. The sworn statement from Griffiths, under the reasons for financial difficulties, reads: “Inability to collect on my contingent liability. My income is insufficient to service the debt load. I can no longer meet my financial obligations as they generally become due.”

B.C. court records show that creditors, including Coast Capital Savings Credit Union and Safeco Mortgage Ltd., have filed civil claims against Griffiths in recent years, in connection with unpaid loans and lines of credit.

The Griffiths family owned the Canucks for more than 20 years, from 1974 when Arthur’s father Frank bought the team, until Arthur Griffiths sold his remaining shares in 1997.

Griffiths was instrumental in the construction of the team’s current downtown arena, General Motors Place (now Rogers Arena).

But Griffiths’ legacy in Vancouver extended far beyond hockey.

He served as the chairman of the Vancouver/Whistler 2010 Bid Society, playing a crucial role in bringing the 2010 Olympic Winter Games to B.C. Griffiths also helped bring the NBA to Vancouver, and was the owner of the Vancouver Grizzlies. He founded Canuck Place in 1995, the first free-standing children’s hospice in North America.

He also made a brief foray into B.C. politics, running unsuccessfully in the 2008 provincial election as the Liberal candidate for the Vancouver-West End riding. The Province endorsed Griffiths in his bid for provincial office.

Province sports columnist Tony Gallagher, who covered his first Canucks game for the paper in 1972, said Tuesday the Griffiths family’s sporting legacy in Vancouver is “phenomenal.”

“It’s just so profoundly sad,” Gallagher said. “He just didn’t seem to have the same financial acumen as his dad.”

Gallagher said Griffiths experienced financial troubles ever since the massive cost overruns associated with the construction of GM Place.

“To his credit, he never pandered for any public money (in the construction of the arena), he put it all up by himself,” Gallagher said. “It was a phenomenal endeavour that he did that. Very beneficial to the Vancouver taxpayer.”

On a personal level, Gallagher said Arthur Griffiths “was terrific, just great to deal with. The whole family was.”

“I really feel sad for him, I think a lot of people do.”

dfumano@theprovince.com

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