The Wage Earner Protection Program Act, S.C. 2005, c. 47 (the “WEPPA”), came into force on July 7, 2008. This paper will set out the implications of the WEPPA on insolvency practice and provide a brief analysis of Ted LeRoy Trucking Ltd. and 383838 B.C. Ltd. (Re), 2009 BCSC 41 (“LeRoy Trucking”), the only reported decision regarding the WEPPA (as at the date of this paper) since the legislation came into force.

I. Introduction to the WEPPA

Section 81.1 of the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act (“BIA”) grants a temporary super priority to suppliers who provided goods to a bankrupt purchaser or where a receiver has been appointed in relation to the purchaser. The section requires the supplier to provide a written demand to the purchaser and allows the supplier to repossess the goods within thirty days of the date of the delivery of goods.

Section 147 of the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act (“BIA”) provides that the Superintendent’s Levy is applied to defray the supervisory expenses of the Superintendent, will be charged on dividend payments made by the trustee.

Background

In 2009, the Calgary Airport Authority (CAA) entered into a construction agreement with Iona Contractors Ltd. for Iona to improve CAA’s north airfield. By October 2010, the work was substantially complete; however CAA withheld further payment to Iona on the basis that some of Iona’s subcontractors remained unpaid. Iona assigned into bankruptcy and a dispute arose over the entitlement to the withheld amounts (the Funds).

The U.S. doctrine of equitable subordination (as now set out in the U.S. Bankruptcy Code) allows a U.S. court to subordinate all or part of a creditor's claim to the claims of other creditors if the creditor has engaged in inequitable conduct that gives the creditor an unfair advantage or is injurious to the other creditors. Will the Canadian courts apply the doctrine?

Taggart v. Lorenzen, No. 18-489

Today, the Supreme Court held 9-0 that a creditor cannot be held in contempt of court for violating a bankruptcy discharge order if there is a “fair ground of doubt” as to whether the order barred the creditor’s conduct.

The Federal Government has announced that September 18, 2009 has been established as the coming-into-force date for most of the remaining unproclaimed amendments to the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act (BIA) and Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA).

In Tri-State Signature Homes Ltd, Re, 2017 ABQB 587, the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench ruled that the statutory stay of proceedings under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act (BIA) does not prevent a creditor of the insolvent person from demanding payment under a letter of credit.

On November 9, 2017, the Supreme Court of Canada granted the Alberta Energy Regulator and the Orphan Well Association’s request for leave to appeal from the decision in Grant Thornton Ltd. v. Alberta Energy Regulator, 2017 ABCA 124.

Earlier this year, the Alberta Court of Appeal, in Grant Thornton Ltd. v. Alberta Energy Regulator, 2017 ABCA 124 decided that secured creditors in a bankruptcy should be paid before environmental claims arising from abandoned oil and gas wells. There was a strong dissent and Alberta’s energy regulator is seeking leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada.