On August 27, 2019, Quebec's Court of Appeal overturned the Quebec Superior Court's decision to give post-filing claims priorities over secured creditors' claims, stating that section 11.01 of the CCAA does not give automatic priority to post-filing creditors.

Background

On July 11, 2019, the Supreme Court of Canada (the SCC) granted leave to appeal from the Alberta Court of Appeal's decision in Capital Steel Inc v Chandos Construction Ltd, 2019 ABCA 32 [Chandos].

In most restructuring proceedings, money is needed to fund the professionals and the management team retained to preserve value in the insolvent company. This money must often be borrowed, and is typically secured by "super-priority" charges granted by the Court. An issue that has recently been before the Alberta courts is whether these charges also rank ahead of other claims that also have priority according to federal legislation.

Introduction

On August 29, 2019, the majority of the Alberta Court of Appeal held in Canada v. Canada North Group Inc., 2019 ABCA 314 (Canada North) that priming charges granted in a Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA) Initial Order can have priority over the Crown’s deemed trust for unremitted source deductions. ^[1]

The Supreme Court of Canada recently granted leave to appeal from the Alberta Court of Appeal's decision in Capital Steel Inc v Chandos Construction Ltd, 2019 ABCA 32. The case addresses the enforceability of clauses that impose monetary consequences for breach of contract, particularly where those consequences are levied because of a contracting party's insolvency.

The Alberta Court of Queen's Bench has issued several conflicting decisions on whether a stay of proceedings in an insolvency matter should be temporarily lifted to allow enforcement of a contractual right to immediately replace an operator of oil and gas assets in the event of the operator's insolvency.

In a recent Bennett Jones Update—Property Tax Priorities in Alberta Insolvency Proceedings: Current Uncertainty—we discussed three recent decisions of the Court of Queen's Bench of Alberta that had addressed the question of the priority of municipal property taxes in insolvency proceedings.

Introduction

The Alberta Energy Regulator's Statutory Power is Not in Conflict With the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act

In a unanimous decision issued November 8, 2018, the Supreme Court of Canada granted the appeal of the decision of the Federal Court of Appeal in Canada v Callidus Capital Corp, 2017 FCA 162.