Scott Hannah says low borrowing costs and rising home prices have lured Canadians into a debt trap they may not escape if looming economic threats materialize, Bloomberg News reported. Hannah, president of the Credit Counselling Society, is seeing an influx of clients as higher financing costs begin to bite and people find it harder to manage. Phone calls were up 5.3 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier, while online chats increased 40 percent.

An Ontario court has approved a restructuring plan for beleaguered junior Canadian gold company Banro Corp., paving the way for it to emerge from creditor protection, The Globe and Mail reported. Under the terms approved by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, holders of US$207.5-million in debt instruments and US$20-million in gold-forward agreements will swap their securities for equity in a revamped Banro. Additional obligations under gold-forward agreements worth US$30.9-million will be deferred for a number of years.

Discovery Air has been granted creditor protection under the federal Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act, which means the company can stay in business and avoid bankruptcy. Protection is granted to companies with more than $5 million in debt, so they can work with their creditors to find a solution and restructure their businesses, CBC Canada reported. Discovery Air owes about $149 million in secured and unsecured debts as of January 31, according to court documents. Discovery Air is the parent company of three businesses: Great Slave Helicopters, Air Tindi and Discovery Mining Services Ltd.

Sears Canada Inc. creditors are targeting Eddie Lampert, its former controlling shareholder and the chief executive of its U.S. namesake Sears Holdings Corp., over payments he received before the Canadian business collapsed last year. A group of unhappy pensioners served court papers Friday in Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice asking for the appointment of a trustee in Sears Canada’s bankruptcy proceeding for the purpose of digging up additional funds for creditors, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Most of Carillion’s Canadian business, including facilities management at airports, hospitals and defence sites, is to be taken over by the insurer Fairfax Financial Holdings for an undisclosed amount, the Financial Times reported. More than 4,500 of Carillion Canada’s 7,000 employees will transfer to Toronto-based Fairfax, which has agreed to take over its support services functions, both companies announced on Monday.

Carillion Canada has been granted protection from creditors by the Ontario Superior Court under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act, Globalnews.ca reported. The Canadian branch of insolvent British construction giant and state contractor Carillion PLC said on its website on Thursday that its decision to seek CCAA protection was forced by the compulsory liquidation of its parent company earlier this month when it couldn’t arrange short-term financing. It said that event gave rise to “unexpected liquidity challenges” for the Canadian operations.

Westinghouse Electric Co LLC, Toshiba Corp's nuclear services business, has made an agreement with its creditors that will clear the company's path out of bankruptcy, according to three people familiar with the matter. The deal will divvy up cash from the $4.6 billion proposed sale of Westinghouse to Brookfield Business Partners, an affiliate of Canada's Brookfield Asset Management, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story.

The Canadian government is increasingly reluctant to insure mortgages against default, Bloomberg News reported. That may end up giving new life to a nascent bond market in the nation. For decades, most home loans made in Canada were made by the biggest banks and guaranteed by the government’s housing agency. In late 2016, regulators tightened the requirements for qualifying for that insurance, resulting in more people doing without it: about three-quarters of the mortgages made by federally regulated banks last year didn’t have government backing.

Dutch tidal turbines developer Tocardo International BV has filed for insolvency the same day it became official that Canada’s Tribute Resources Inc will not buy out the company, Renewables Now reported. Tocardo has secured a deferral of payment to creditors. A creditors meeting will be held on March 27, 2018. In early August 2017, Canadian energy company Tribute Resources unveiled its intention to buy the 53.5% stake it does not already own in Tocardo and focus on tidal and marine power development. The plan included changing Tribute’s name to Tocardo Energy Inc following the combination.

Economic output in Canada unexpectedly stalled in October—due to a decline in the energy sector—likely curbing expectations of a rate increase from the Bank of Canada in January, the Wall Street Journal reported. The level of Canada’s gross domestic product--the broadest measure of goods and services produced in an economy--was unchanged in October from the previous month at 1.75 trillion Canadian dollars ($1.37 trillion) on a seasonally-adjusted basis, Statistics Canada said on Friday.