Our last newsletter commented on high inflation, dwindling business confidence and international supply chain issues. Those factors continue to influence the economic outlook, with some businesses unable to survive the strengthening head winds impacting the economy. The consumer price index increased 7.2 percent in the 12 months to December 2022, remaining stubbornly high despite significant movements in the official cash rate to 4.5%, up significantly from the 0.25% it was sitting at in October 2021. ANZ's economic forecast warns that a "policy induced recession is looming".

Introduction The new meme, increasingly used to describe the current state of the economy, is a “rolling recession,” rather than the hard or soft landing many commentators expected. In other words, we are experiencing mild slumps rippling through the economy that have the potential to slow inflation without radically impacting the labour market.

In Golfside Ventures Ltd (Re) (2023 ABKB 86) the Court of King’s Bench of Alberta (the “Court”) reaffirmed the Court’s authority to exercise inherent jurisdiction in proceedings under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act (the “BIA”) in circumstances where (1) the BIA is silent or has not dealt with a matter exhaustively; and (2) the benefit of granting the relief outweighs th

Where an individual is both a corporate director and a shareholder, can they be held personally liable for stripping value from a corporation to defeat corporate creditors? “Yes”, according to the Court of Appeal for Ontario’s recent decision in FNF Enterprises Inc. v. Wag and Train Inc, 2023 ONCA 92. But what is the legal basis for imposing personal liability for the corporation’s obligations?

In 2015, Justice Wilson-Siegel approved a new form of vesting order, referred to as the "reverse vesting order" (or RVO) as part of the restructuring in Plasco Energy (Re). An RVO is a court order that transfers unwanted assets and liabilities out of a debtor company into a (oftentimes newly incorporated) affiliated company, referred to as "ResidualCo." The debtor company is left holding only the assets and liabilities the purchaser wants to acquire.

In a recent decision in the CCAA proceedings involving the Cannapiece Group, Mr. Justice Osborne of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice rejected an application for a reverse vesting order brought by the debtor companies and supported by the monitor.

Key Takeaways

The Supreme Court of Canada's ("SCC") recent decision in Peace River Hydro Partners v.

Canadian tech companies have entered uncharted waters, with a range of factors threatening to produce a liquidity crunch for many of them.

For years, the tech sector enjoyed record volumes of venture capital investment fueled by low interest rates, an inflow of foreign and corporate investment, and the collective desire to create a vibrant tech ecosystem in Canada. As the economic tides have changed, with climbing interest rates and a looming recession, tech companies are facing an increasingly tough fundraising environment.

2022 was an unprecedented year in insolvency practice. For as long as anyone can remember, there have always been several large corporate insolvency filings with national scope in each calendar year that hits the front page of the papers. But in 2022, there wasn’t even one.