On February 2 and 9, 2012, the Ontario Superior Court released two decisions in the ongoing proceedings of Timminco Limited and Bécancour Silicon Inc. (together, the Timminco Entities) under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA) that further develop the law regarding pension claim priorities in insolvency proceedings.
Imagine that a critical part of your business is dependent on a software program that you license from a software supplier. This scenario is not that hard to imagine, because in fact most businesses and other organizations are indeed reliant on licensed software – it is simply a fact of life in the computer age.
The highest profile duty to consult case this past year was the Federal Court of Appeal’s decision in Coldwater First Nation v. Canada (Attorney General), 2020 FCA 34, relating to the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion Project (TMX Project). This was a judicial review of the federal Cabinet’s decision to approve the TMX Project for the second time subject to numerous conditions. The TMX Project involves the twinning and expansion of an existing pipeline from Edmonton, Alberta to Burnaby, British Columbia.
In Arrangement relatif à Ferreira, 2018 QCCS 3891 (“Ferreira”), the Quebec Superior Court recently annulled an assignment in bankruptcy that had been filed in Ontario in an attempt to subvert bankruptcy proceedings already underway in Quebec.
In a majority two to one decision released on April 24, 2017, the Alberta Court of Appeal has upheld the lower court ruling in Re Redwater Energy Corporation.
There are a number of similarities between restructuring legislation in Canada and the United States. Each of Canada and the United States have adopted a form of the UNCITRAL Model Law Cross-Border Insolvency in order to facilitate cooperation and efficient administration of cases with an international component. In Canada this has occurred through implementation of both Part XIII of the
The Supreme Court has announced it will hear the appeal in the high profile Indalex Ltd., Re. The appeal is of great interest to the commercial litigation, insolvency and pension bar. Its outcome will be closely watched and may have dramatic impact on Canadian corporate reorganizations.
Background
On December 23, 2007, the Pan-Canadian Investors Committee for Third-Party Structured Asset-Backed Commercial Paper (ABCP) announced that an ‘agreement in principle’ had been reached for a restructuring of $33 billion of approximately $35 billion of Canadian ABCP. The repayment of this debt had been frozen pursuant to a standstill created by the ‘Montreal Accord’ as of August 16, 2007.
Prior to December 23, 2020, it had been unclear whether a court had the jurisdiction to grant an order assigning a contract without counterparty consent, on application by a court-appointed receiver (a “Receiver”).