The number of Canadians who can’t pay their debts and are being forced into insolvency is on the rise for the first time since the recession, according to a report by CIBC, The Canadian Press reported. The bank says the cumulative number of insolvencies rose by 1.2 per cent in the six-month period ended in February. The overall increase came as personal bankruptcies fell by 4.7 per cent. However the number of proposals, where consumers negotiate to repay only a portion of their debt, rose by no less than nine per cent.

Two weeks after announcing it will shut down its money-losing oilsands project, insolvent Southern Pacific Resource Corp. said its first-lien creditors have filed to throw it into receivership, The Calgary Herald reported. “The effect of a receivership will make any recovery for unsecured creditors or shareholders very unlikely,” the Calgary-based junior producer warned in a brief news release issued Thursday afternoon.

The deal between the Canadian government and U.S. Steel that allowed the steelmaker to renege on its obligation to make steel in Canada — at plants in Hamilton and Nanticoke in Ontario — will remain a secret, CBC.ca reported. An Ontario Superior Court judge ruled that while it is reasonable that the deal be open, for fairness in the bankruptcy protection process, he dismissed an unsealing motion, saying he didn't have the authority to make that happen.

Cliffs Natural Resources Inc said on Wednesday it was seeking court protection from creditors of its Wabush iron ore mine and related assets in Eastern Canada, four months after it sought similar protection for its other Canadian iron ore assets. The U.S.-based iron ore and coal miner said it had concluded that a "more comprehensive restructuring and sale process" would result if it was able to include the Wabush group under the same creditor protection it obtained in January for its larger Bloom Lake iron ore assets in Quebec Superior Court.

The number of Canadians who can’t pay their debts and are being forced into insolvency is on the rise for the first time since the recession, according to a report by CIBC. The bank says the cumulative number of insolvencies rose by 1.2 per cent in the six-month period ended in February. The overall increase came as personal bankruptcies fell by 4.7 per cent. However the number of proposals, where consumers negotiate to repay only a portion of their debt, rose by no less than nine per cent. CIBC economist Benjamin Tal noted the affect of lower oil prices is starting to show.

Former UK employees of Nortel Networks, the insolvent Canadian telecoms firm, could receive up to two thirds of their long-deferred pension claims after the US and Canadian courts ruled that the company’s remaining assets should be equally divided among all the insolvent parts of the group. Accountancy firm PwC, a financial adviser to the trustees of the Nortel UK Pension Scheme since the company’s 2009 insolvency, said that the unprecedented joint ruling by the courts could set an example in future insolvency cases involving highly integrated multinational companies.

An operationally troubled thermal oilsands project in northern Alberta, built for nearly half a billion dollars, is to be shut down this summer while its insolvent owner tries to find a solution to its money woes, The Calgary Herald reported. Calgary-based Southern Pacific Resource Corp. said Thursday it will “hibernate” its STP-McKay facility by the end of July, turning off all of the equipment for up to three years while it looks for funding to get it going again. “We’re going to be shutting the plant completely but preserving it so that it can be started up again at a future date.

The Canadian and U.S. judges charged with dividing the $7.3 billion from the liquidation of Nortel Networks rejected proposals from former regional businesses and opted for a pro rata split of the money in long-awaited rulings on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Judges on the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Delaware and Ontario Superior Court of Justice held an unprecedented joint cross-border trial on the dispute, with the courtrooms linked by video. The legal battle has raged for years through numerous courts, chewing up more than $1 billion in fees for lawyers and other advisors.

U.S. Steel was able to extend its creditor protection deadline to the fall, although previous court filings suggest the restructuring will go beyond the new September deadline, CBC.ca reported. This is the third extension of U.S. Steel Canada's (USSC) bankruptcy protection for its operations north of the border in Hamilton and Nanticoke. The uncontested extension was signed by Superior Court Justice Herman Wilton-Siegel Thursday.

U.S. Steel has issued a thinly veiled threat to shut down parts of its Canadian operations if its claim to be owed $2.2 billion by its struggling Canadian arm is not allowed, The Hamilton Spectator reported. In court documents filed this week, the company says objections to its claims threaten to slow the restructuring process it says must be complete by mid-summer if it is to avoid losing its critical auto contracts. At issue are objections by the Ontario government, the United Steelworkers, retirees and a former Stelco president to the parent company's claims.