Business bankruptcies across Canada have risen to their highest level in 15 years, Baystreet.ca reported. The latest data from the Canadian Association of Insolvency and Restructuring Professionals shows that 1,312 companies filed for bankruptcy during the third quarter of 2024, the highest level since the 2009 financial crisis. On a yearly basis, bankruptcy filings rose in every province except New Brunswick and Newfoundland during Q3 2024. In Ontario, bankruptcy filings rose 67% year-over-year in Q3, while bankruptcy filings in Quebec increased 40%.

Canadian manufacturing activity increased at the fastest pace in nearly two years in December as inventory accumulation by U.S. clients in anticipation of trade tariffs provided a measure of support for export sales, Reuters reported. The S&P Global Canada Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) rose to 52.2 in December from 52.0 in November, its highest level since February 2023 and the fourth straight month above the 50.0 no-change mark. The average for the PMI in data going back to 2010 is 52.4. A reading above 50 indicates expansion in the sector. U.S.

The Canadian economy appeared to lose its strength toward the end of this year even as the central bank cut interest rates at a rapid pace, Bloomberg News reported. Advance data suggested gross domestic product shrank 0.1% in November, the first monthly contraction this year, after 0.3% expansion a month earlier, Statistics Canada said Monday. With October’s stronger-than-expected gain and November’s decline, the industry-based data point to the economy growing at a 1.7% annualized pace in the final quarter, assuming December growth is flat.

The Canadian Parliament passed legislation last week granting priority status to produce growers and shippers for unpaid product in the event that a buyer of their fruits and vegetables files for bankruptcy, the Produce News reported. The new law, Bill C-280, is similar to the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act trust amendment that was passed by the U.S. Congress in 1984. For the past 40 years, agricultural advocacy groups in Canada, as well as the United States, have been pushing for similar legislation with no success. In fact, in 2014 the U.S.

With year-end approaching, two iconic mountain bike brands are making big moves to stay afloat in a difficult market, SingleTracks.com reported. Yesterday, Rocky Mountain announced in a press release that it has filed for protection under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act in Canada in order “to avoid business interruption as much as possible.” “Despite strong demand for its bikes during the pandemic, the Company struggled to secure supplies due to shortages and rising costs,” according to the release.

An organization that works to document what happened at a notorious residential school says it’s at risk of going bankrupt by the end of the month unless Canada makes a decision on whether it will fund the group’s work, the Canadian Press reported. The Survivors’ Secretariat, which works to uncover the truth about what happened at the Mohawk Institute, a residential school that operated in Brantford, Ont., also says the ministry of Crown-Indigenous relations is letting down survivors with the delays in processing its applications.

Price pressures in Canada unexpectedly eased in November even as core measures of consumer inflation remained sticky, leaving the door open to further interest-rate cuts in the new year but backing the central bank’s shift to a more measured approach, the Wall Street Journal reported. The consumer price index was unchanged last month, where economists expected a 0.1% advance after an acceleration to 0.4% growth the month before, Statistics Canada said Tuesday. That left annual inflation to cool slightly to 1.9% from 2% in October, where economists had expected it to remain.

Lion Electric Co., the Canadian maker of electric school buses, has failed to find new investor backing ahead of a deadline on the expiry of its credit agreements, the Globe and Mail. The manufacturer will therefore file for bankruptcy protection in a bid to restructure, it confirmed in a statement Tuesday. The Saint-Jérome, Que.-based company, one of the province’s big industrial hopes in the shift to electric vehicles, had been scrambling to secure new capital from new or existing investors and figure out a way to deal with a debt that’s ballooned to nearly US$300-million.

The Canadian government is weighing an export tax on certain commodities to the U.S. if President-elect Donald Trump fulfills his pledge of slapping a 25% tariff on all Canadian imports, the Wall Street Journal reported. Among the commodities that could be affected are energy products, most notably crude oil, potash and uranium, but no final decision has been made, the person said. Nearly all crude oil exported from Canada is bound for the U.S. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said this week that Canada would retaliate against the U.S.