The Court of Appeal of Alberta issued the latest decision in the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA) proceedings of Bellatrix Exploration Ltd. (Bellatrix).¹

Now that the UK has left the EU and the transition period ended on 31 December 2020, this briefing considers the key points of the legal and regulatory landscape from the perspective of Ireland.

Deal or no-deal?

In effect, there is both. The December 2020 EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement¹ (the “TCA”) includes a ‘deal’ so far as concerns EU-UK trade in many types of good. However, the TCA makes little provision for trade in services and so, broadly, it is ‘no-deal’ as regards most types of service.

Part 1

Without question, the top story over the last year has been the COVID-19 pandemic and its tremendous ongoing effects felt across Canada and the world.

This time has had a significant impact on Canada’s energy industry and many of the changes and developments that took place in 2020 will continue to influence trends, business decisions and the future growth of Canada’s energy industry in 2021.

In the recent decision in PricewaterhouseCoopers Inc. v Perpetual Energy Inc., 2021 ABCA 16 (Perpetual Energy), the Alberta Court of Appeal has reversed the Honourable Justice D.B. Nixon’s decision, striking out or summarily dismissing claims by PricewaterhouseCoopers Inc. in its capacity as trustee in bankruptcy (the Trustee) of Sequoia Resources Corp. (Perpetual/Sequoia).

The High Court has recently struck out proceedings against a defaulting debtor where the bank made a unilateral commercial decision to delay to allow her co-debtor to recover financially so increasing its prospect of recovery.

Background

In Bank of Ireland v Wilson,¹ the bank commenced summary proceedings against the defaulting debtors in 2012. The debtors, who were jointly and severally liable on the debt, had been in a relationship but were now estranged.

When a business becomes insolvent, all of the creditors of the business are at risk, including its landlords. As COVID-19 continues to challenge businesses in Ireland and abroad, two recent decisions of Mr Justice McDonald in the High Court offer a timely reminder of the standards which tenants must meet when seeking to compromise their commercial lease obligations and the importance of procedural fairness for landlords affected by tenant insolvency.

The New Look case¹

This is part three of a series focusing on current M&A trends, opportunities and challenges

This is the first part of a two-part series

Commercial tenant bankruptcies and COVID-19

In the recent decision of British Columbia Attorney General v Quinsam Coal Corporation, 2020 BCSC 640 (Quinsam), the British Columbia Supreme Court (the Court) considered the priority between a debtor’s environmental liabilities and a secured creditor. In its analysis, the Court extensively discussed the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision in Orphan Well Association v Grant Thornton Ltd, 2019 SCC 5 (Redwater). In reference to Redwater, the Court posed the following question:

In Toronto-Dominion Bank v Canada,¹ the Federal Court of Appeal (FCA) upheld the Federal Court’s decision² that the Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD) was required to pay to the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) proceeds of $67,854 for unremitted GST that TD received as repayment from a borrower upon the discharge of a TD mortgage.