Canada

B.C. Finance Minister Mike de Jong has resorted to corporate and personal income taxes hikes for the first time in his party’s 12 year reign, on the eve of an election that threatens to unseat the B.C. Liberal government, The Globe and Mail reported. In his quest to deliver a $197-million surplus budget in advance of the May 14 election, Mr. de Jong has abandoned a long-standing commitment to driving economic growth through tax cuts to business and high income earners.

Air Canada is contravening federal law by not maintaining heavy-maintenance operations in Canada, the Quebec Superior Court ruled Monday, Global Regina reported on a Canadian Press story. In a 39-page ruling, Justice Martin Castonguay said the airline has an obligation under the Air Canada Public Participation Act to maintain such operations in Montreal and Winnipeg, along with Mississauga, Ont., where smaller overhaul work was completed by Aveos Fleet Performance until it closed last year.

The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that the U.S. parent of an insolvent Toronto company is entitled to the Canadian entity’s last $6.75-million, instead of a group of the firm’s retirees, whose pensions were cut after their employer went under, The Globe and Mail reported. The court’s ruling in the case of Indalex Ltd., which plunged into bankruptcy protection in 2009, was is expected to have broad implications for other companies and pension plans across the country.

Almost eight months after it heard oral arguments in the case, the Supreme Court of Canada will be releasing its decision in Sun Indalex Finance, LLC v. United Steelworkers on Friday, Feb. 1, 2013 at 9:45 AM, the Financial Post reported. The case involves an appeal from the Ontario Court of Appeal’s April 2011 judgment in Re Indalex Limited, a landmark case holding that pension plan deficiency claims can have priority over the claims of debtor-in-possession (DIP) lenders in the context of Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA) proceedings.

It’s a world where an e-mail that takes just six minutes to write costs more than $100, and where just the act of compiling one month’s legal bill – not the bill itself – costs $40,000. Welcome to the high-stakes, high-priced universe of cross-border bankruptcy litigation, where what remains of Nortel Networks Corp. is being slowly drained away by lawyers and consultants, The Globe and Mail reported. Nortel’s bondholders, pensioners and other creditors have been engaged in an expensive fight over the $9-billion left over from the piecemeal sale of the company.

Talks to divide $9 billion raised from the sale of businesses of Nortel Networks, the telecoms equipment maker that went bankrupt in 2009, ended without agreement, and the mediator said on Thursday further discussions were no longer worthwhile, Reuters reported. The failure of nearly two weeks of talks in Toronto raises the prospect that disputes among various creditors and retirees around the world could lead to years of litigation over how to divide the cash.

A mediator overseeing creditor negotiations in Nortel Networks' bankruptcy said on Tuesday he is extending talks over how to distribute about $9 billion in cash at the fallen telecom, Reuters reported. Ontario Chief Justice Warren Winkler said in a statement the mediation, scheduled to end at noon on Tuesday, had been extended, but did not say for how long. A spokesman for the mediator declined to give detail on the length of the extension.

The former chief executive of bankrupt Nortel Networks and two former senior executives were found not guilty Monday of falsifying financial reports in what prosecutors said was a scheme to report profits and gain bonuses, the Associated Press reported. Ontario Superior Court Justice Frank Marrocco dismissed all charges against former chief executive Frank Dunn, chief financial officer Douglas Beatty and corporate controller Michael Gollogly. The verdicts come four years to the day after Nortel sought bankruptcy protection and began liquidating.

Nortel Networks was once the largest telecommunication equipment company in North America, but since it filed for bankruptcy in 2009 it has earned a new label: one of the world's most complicated legal proceedings, Reuters reported. Bondholders, suppliers, governments and former employees from around the globe hold $20 billion in claims based on different insolvency laws and are competing for Nortel's last remaining asset - $9 billion in cash.

Newfoundland and Labrador called on the Harper government Friday to change corporate bankruptcy laws after it lost a major environmental appeal before the Supreme Court of Canada, the Canadian Press reported. The province failed in its bid to force the newsprint giant, formerly known as AbitibiBowater Inc., to pay for an environmental cleanup, as the Supreme Court sided with the company in a 7-2 ruling. The province's attorney general called for legislative changes after Friday's ruling, which acknowledged the so-called "polluter pay" principle.