UMSU to pay CASA overdue membership fees

Tessa Vanderhart, Staff

The $28,808 that the University of Manitoba Students’ Union (UMSU) owes the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations (CASA) will be paid out soon, according to the leaders of both organizations.

Sran said the settlement with CASA is still in progress and is being handled by the student union’s lawyers.

“The faster, the better, for us. We want something that’s fair for our members,” Sran said.

Sran said that the settlement is for the $28,808 in membership fees UMSU owed CASA for its membership in the 2005-06 year. UMSU left the national lobbying group in October 2006, after the fee deadline.

CASA’s constitution stipulates that UMSU has to pay the fees, which are two-thirds of their total membership fees for that year, plus three per cent interest compounded every 15 days, which would have totalled more than $200,000.

Sran said that the settlement does not include that interest, so, though he could not provide the specific amount, the total amount owed is approximately $29,000.

That amount will be taken from the 2005-06 UMSU budget under “legal fees,” because that is where those funds were put after UMSU council voted to leave CASA. Council was never consulted on whether or not UMSU would pay the fees.

Then-UMSU president Amanda Aziz declined to comment on whether her executive had paid the fees in a July 2008 interview, when the Manitoban first reported on the lawsuit.

CASA national director Zach Churchill said that the lobbying organization’s lawyers are handling the settlement, and he hasn’t been notified of any disagreements.

Churchill said that a term of the settlement was that fees had to be paid within 60 days.

Neither UMSU nor CASA could provide the date of the settlement, but at least four weeks of that 60-day period have elapsed.