B.C. forestry company San Industries Ltd. has been handed a $429k penalty and two-year ban from hiring migrant workers after it violated regulations.
The company breached five sections of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations, rules designed to protect temporary foreign workers. San Industries Ltd. (San Group) was founded and controlled by Kamaljit Singh Sanghera, Sukhjit Singh Sanghera, and Iqbal Deol.
San Group CEO Kamaljit Singh (Kamal) Sanghera
At $429k, the penalty is the province’s second-largest, just behind the $435k fine handed out to Surrey’s Kanwar Walia Farms in February 2026. The San Group sought creditor protection in November 2024 in the face of more than $150 million in claims. Despite selling off some of its assets, lenders are still owed more than $129m, according to Deloitte.
In April, the forestry outfit launched a legal attack involving a federal bank, one of Canada’s largest insurance brokers, and the world’s most famous insurance syndicate. Lloyd’s Underwriters denied a $31m insurance claim over a 2024 fire at a San-owned mill in Delta, B.C. They claimed the fire was a deliberate act of arson by the owners.
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San Group owners are Kamal Sanghera (CEO), Suki Sanghera (president) and Paul Deol. Suki Sanghera is Kamal Sanghera’s brother. |
Deloitte Restructuring Inc., the monitor, has sought to sell about 46 acres of San owned land and saw mill equipment in Port Alberni, and more than 45 acres, including a remanufacturing facility, in Langley. When the co sought creditor protection it owed $107m to the Royal Bank of Canada, $43m to the Business Development Bank of Canada, $22m to the B.C. government for stumpage fees, and $5m to the Canada Revenue Agency.
In total, the company’s liabilities were at least $193.85m before going bankrupt. San Industries Ltd. went to extraordinary lengths to import Punjabi workers.
“SAN Group failed because SAN Group spent lots of money and we [made] mistakes,” he said. “And then Corona [Covid] hit, and then the highway fire happened and we didn’t get any help from any government, not provincial or federal government. This was the biggest mistake. We should have shut down at that time and waited for insurance money to fix things. This was the biggest mistake that SAN Group made.”
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