Canada

Bixi has applied for protection from its creditors and the City of Montreal is taking over the local operation of the popular bike-sharing service, CBC News reported. Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre made the announcement Monday afternoon. “If Bixi can be saved, it’s through the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act," Coderre said. The company that owns Bixi — the Public Bike System Company, known in French as the Société de vélos en libre-service (SVLS) — owes $50 million to various creditors, including the City of Montreal.

Financially troubled Colossus Minerals Inc., a development-stage miner focused on Brazil, intends to file for protection under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act, GlobalPost reported on a Canadian Press story. Trading in shares of Colossus, which was unable to make a Dec. 31 interest payment on its convertible gold-linked notes, have been halted on the Toronto Stock Exchange pending a delisting review. Colossus said Tuesday that its board has approved a proposal from certain noteholders and Sandstorm Gold Ltd.

Quebecor Inc. is showing interest in purchasing struggling wireless startup Mobilicity, a move that could potentially change Canada’s national wireless landscape at a time of faltering competition, The Globe and Mail reported. Bank of Nova Scotia analyst Jeff Fan said in a research note that the Montreal company signed a non-disclosure agreement with Mobilicity ahead of a key spectrum auction that began on Tuesday, suggesting it may harbour ambitions of securing more wireless licences outside its home market of Quebec.

Mobilicity is attempting to lay the groundwork to ask an Ontario court to force the sale of its wireless licences to Telus Corp. or another large carrier after a federal ban on such deals expires next month, BNN reported on a Globe and Mail story. Mobilicity plans to ask the Ontario Superior Court of Justice to issue an order that could pave the way for the transfer of its spectrum licences to another carrier, even if the federal government objects to a potential deal, according to court filings.

The cash-strapped Land Conservancy of British Columbia has decided to reduce its debt load by selling a historic property in a deal that could see it once again become a working farm, Metro News reported on a Canadian Press story. Land Conservancy manager John Shields says officials are nearing completion of a deal to sell Keating Farm, located about 60 kilometres north of Victoria near Duncan, for nearly $750,000. He says the prospective buyer is pledging to restore the site to a working farm.

Lone Pine Resources Inc. is requesting U.S. Bankruptcy Court approval of its reorganization plan, contingent with its also receiving the Canadian bankruptcy court's blessing early next year, The Wall Street Journal reported. The company is scheduled to ask the Canadian court to approve its plan during a sanction hearing on Jan. 9. That approval will implement the plan in Canada, but it still would require U.S. court confirmation. Lone Pine is requesting that on Jan. 14, the U.S.

Canada's economy expanded faster than expected in October, driven by the largest monthly gain in manufacturing in nearly two years, suggesting fourth-quarter growth may not be far off the strong gain seen in the previous three months, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Gross domestic product, the sum total of goods and services produced in the country, grew 0.3 percent to 1.60 trillion Canadian dollars ($1.51 trillion), the same pace as in September, Statistics Canada said Monday.

Canadian consumer debt is expected to rise to a record high by the end of next year due to a borrowing spree for new cars, home renovations and household items, says a new study released Thursday, The Toronto Star reported. Average total debt, excluding mortgages, is expected to jump by more than $1,000 from an estimated $27,743 in the last three months to an all-time high of $28,853 by the end of 2014, according to TransUnion, one of Canada’s largest credit bureaus.

The company operating as Sears Home Services has gone into receivership, leaving 643 people jobless and putting into limbo $3-million in customer deposits for home installed goods and services ranging from carpeting to roofing, The Toronto Star reported. SHS Services Management Inc. has been providing home installed products and services under the Sears Home Services banner since February. It went into receivership on Friday, citing liabilities of $17-million.

When a runaway Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway train hauling 72 tankers of Bakken crude oil derailed and exploded in the majestic town of Lac Megantic, Que., killing 47 people and destroying more than 40 buildings on July 6, 2013, it set in motion what is expected to be one of the most compelling and complex cross-border insolvencies ever tackled by Canadian and U.S. courts, Canadian Lawyer reported in a commentary.