Lone Pine Resources Inc. is requesting U.S. Bankruptcy Court approval of its reorganization plan, contingent with its also receiving the Canadian bankruptcy court's blessing early next year, The Wall Street Journal reported. The company is scheduled to ask the Canadian court to approve its plan during a sanction hearing on Jan. 9. That approval will implement the plan in Canada, but it still would require U.S. court confirmation. Lone Pine is requesting that on Jan. 14, the U.S.

Canada's economy expanded faster than expected in October, driven by the largest monthly gain in manufacturing in nearly two years, suggesting fourth-quarter growth may not be far off the strong gain seen in the previous three months, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Gross domestic product, the sum total of goods and services produced in the country, grew 0.3 percent to 1.60 trillion Canadian dollars ($1.51 trillion), the same pace as in September, Statistics Canada said Monday.

Canadian consumer debt is expected to rise to a record high by the end of next year due to a borrowing spree for new cars, home renovations and household items, says a new study released Thursday, The Toronto Star reported. Average total debt, excluding mortgages, is expected to jump by more than $1,000 from an estimated $27,743 in the last three months to an all-time high of $28,853 by the end of 2014, according to TransUnion, one of Canada’s largest credit bureaus.

The liquidation vehicle for Ireland's failed Anglo Irish Bank has been granted bankruptcy protection in the United States, it said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. The bank, whose failure cost Irish taxpayers some 30 billion euros ($41 billion) in the financial crisis, was put into an accelerated liquidation process during an emergency session of Ireland's parliament in February. Now known as Irish Bank Resolution Corp, or IRBC, the liquidating bank applied in August for U.S. court protection to prevent creditors from going after more than $1 billion in U.S. assets.

The company operating as Sears Home Services has gone into receivership, leaving 643 people jobless and putting into limbo $3-million in customer deposits for home installed goods and services ranging from carpeting to roofing, The Toronto Star reported. SHS Services Management Inc. has been providing home installed products and services under the Sears Home Services banner since February. It went into receivership on Friday, citing liabilities of $17-million.

Caribbean countries are lobbying furiously for an extensive international debt relief and investment programme, as politicians become increasingly anxious over the social impact of the region’s economic crisis and the resulting government austerity, the Financial Times reported. Most of the dozen anglophone countries in the tropical archipelago off the coast of the US are struggling with large government debts and lacklustre economies after the global financial crisis hurt tourism, the dominant industry of the Caribbean.

When a runaway Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway train hauling 72 tankers of Bakken crude oil derailed and exploded in the majestic town of Lac Megantic, Que., killing 47 people and destroying more than 40 buildings on July 6, 2013, it set in motion what is expected to be one of the most compelling and complex cross-border insolvencies ever tackled by Canadian and U.S. courts, Canadian Lawyer reported in a commentary.

While the overall risk to Canada’s financial system has declined for the first time in two years, closer to home the Bank of Canada continues to be concerned about household debt and housing, The Wall Street Journal Real Time Canada blog reported.

Homburg Invest Inc. is suing several companies chaired by Richard Homburg, its former chairman, for $2,895,000, The Chronicle Herald reported. According to court documents, Homburg Invest is undergoing insolvency restructuring under the protection of the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act, with proceedings in the Superior Court of Quebec. As part of that restructuring, the plaintiff divested certain U.S. assets, with limited assistance from Homburg Realty Service, whose parent, according to court documents, is Homburg Canada, now Citadel Holdings.

The court-appointed monitor for struggling Canadian wireless startup Mobilicity has extended the deadline for suitors to bid for the company by a week to Dec. 16, a regulatory filing shows, Reuters reported. Bidders for the Toronto-based startup, which filed for court protection from its creditors earlier this year, now have until noon next Monday to submit their offers in the court-supervised auction, according to a document posted on the website of monitor Ernst & Young Inc. Ernst & Young said it extended the deadline following requests from several bidders.