How do I check if a company has filed for bankruptcy or a proposal in Canada?

A buyer who is acquiring the shares of a corporation, or buying assets from one, can check whether that corporation itself has gone through a federal insolvency process. This is a different search from one on a guarantor, which has its own page. Here the name being searched is the company’s.

Running the search

The Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy says that the records of companies that have filed under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA) since September 18, 2009 are now included in the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Records. The same instructions say the search also includes bankruptcy and insolvency (BIA) records; ask the Office what period those records cover before you rely on a clear result. Registration is free, and you log in with a GCKey or a Sign-In Partner. The Office’s instructions say that typing two words of a company name returns every business with those words in its name, while enclosing the exact name in quotation marks returns only those words in that order, narrowing the list. Try the legal name, the operating name and earlier names the seller discloses.

What it costs

The Office’s instructions have a cost section: viewing search results is charged by set of records, and CCAA records can be viewed free of charge. The Office also says wild cards can increase the number of matches and so the cost. Confirm the current charges on the instructions page before you search.

What a proposal is

Under section 50.4 of the BIA, before filing a proposal with a licensed trustee, an insolvent person may file a notice of intention, in the prescribed form, with the official receiver in the insolvent person’s locality. The glossary entry explains the notice. The CCAA is a separate federal law; the Office lists companies granted protection under it on its CCAA records pages.

If the search returns a hit

Ask the seller to explain the filing and bring in your lawyer. For a CCAA record, the Office’s CCAA records page says to contact the monitor for that proceeding for more information. Ask your lawyer how the filing bears on your deal, including what you can buy and from whom. A clean result shows only that nothing appears under the name you searched.