Business Law Blog

In the recent case of Canada v. Canada North Group Inc.,^[1] a 5-4 majority of the Supreme Court of Canada confirmed that supervising courts under the Companies Creditors' Arrangement Act (the "CCAA") have the discretion to grant restructuring charges (“Priming Charges”) priority over statutory deemed trusts (“Deemed Trusts”) in favour of the Crown.

The ...

Virtual shareholder meetings have become ubiquitous for both public and private companies since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Canadian securities regulators, stock exchanges and federal and provincial governments quickly responded to accommodate electronic meetings where it was otherwise not permitted. In British Columbia, Ministerial Order No. M116 was ...

Amendments to National Instrument 31-103 Registration Requirements, Exemptions and Ongoing Registrant Obligations (“NI 31-103”) and the new requirements under Client Focused Reforms (“CFRs”)

The Canadian Securities Administrators (“CSA”) have amended NI 31-103 to introduce new registrant conduct requirements, with the stated objective of better ...

In the fall of 2015, the well-known corporate lawyer Martin Lipton issued a paper entitled Will a New Paradigm for Corporate Governance Bring Peace to the Thirty Years’ War. Focused on what were then widespread concerns about corporate short-termism and, more particularly, the effect of activist hedge funds on long-term corporate value, this article was a prelude to Mr ...

The expanded registration requirements for British Columbia Provincial Sales Tax (“PST”) will come into effect on April 1, 2021. Under the new requirements, and where criteria are met, all Canadian and foreign providers of software and telecommunications services will be required to collect and remit PST at a rate of 7% from customers located in British Columbia.

New ...

Every year, reporting issuers are faced with the task of tailoring the disclosure for their annual general meeting to an ever-evolving list of changes in corporate and securities laws, updates to stock exchange rules, new guidance from proxy advisors and regulators and developing corporate governance trends.

This checklist and overview of certain matters relevant to ...

In peak summer, the holiday season enjoyed months ago is likely just a distant memory, and any gift cards that you may have been fortunate enough to receive may still be floating around your wallet, ready to be redeemed. As consumers contemplate how to make room in their overcrowded wallets by using the money on their gift cards, and as the next holiday season comes into view ...

Unprecedented. Have you heard that word a lot in the past 4-5 months? Not surprisingly, the word ‘unprecedented’ is the default word to describe society’s reaction to COVID-19, its effects on our healthcare systems, our behaviours, our compliance (or not) with government directives and guidelines, and the impact to our economy and economic well-being. This is, in ...

The enforcement by Canada Revenue Agency (“CRA”) of its super priority position for deemed trust liabilities has long been an issue of uncertainty for secured creditors. While the Excise Tax Act (the “ETA”) has carved out “prescribed security interests” from that super priority, the calculation of the funds that continue to rank in priority to a prescribe ...

Changes to corporate law allowing the creation of a “benefit company”, a form of corporation whose business, in addition to aiming to generate profits, promotes one or more public benefits, will come into force in British Columbia on June 30, 2020. The legislation, discussed in our June 2019 blog post and the first of its kind in Canada, allows new benefit companies to be ...