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The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company and Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada close secured credit facility to First Nation LP

Date Closed

October 25, 2019

Lead Office

Toronto

On October 25, 2019, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company and Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada closed a secured credit facility (the “Credit Facility”) to First Nation LP (“FNLP”), a partnership of 24 First Nations, in order to finance its equity interest in Wataynikaneyap Power LP (“WPLP”), the developer of the Wataynikaneyap power transmission line project (the “Project”). The Credit Facility is guaranteed by the Ministry of Finance (Ontario) as part of the Aboriginal Loan Guarantee Program (ALGP) administered by the Ontario Financing Authority (OFA). Computershare Trust Company of Canada is acting as collateral trustee for the Credit Facility.

The purpose of the Project is to build a power transmission line to bring electricity to 16 remote First Nation communities in Northwestern Ontario. The Project is sponsored by affiliates of Fortis Inc. (“Fortis”) and Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp.

The Credit Facility is part of a multi-tiered financing for the Project also involving the Government of Canada, the Ministry of Energy, Northern Development and Mines (Ontario), as lender, the Ontario Financing Authority, as administrative agent, and a syndicate of bank lenders comprising the Royal Bank of Canada, the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, the National Bank of Canada, The Bank of Nova Scotia, and The Toronto-Dominion Bank (the “Bank Lenders”), with the Royal Bank of Canada acting as administrative agent and collateral agent for the Bank Lenders.

McCarthy Tétrault advised Manulife and Sun Life with a team led by Lynn Parsons and Steve Furlan that included Jacob Stone and Alexandre Saulnier-Marceau (Financial Services), George Vegh (Regulatory), Joanna Rosengarten (Environment), Scott Chalmers (Construction), and Bryn Gray (Litigation/First Nations).

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