Pension Priorities in Canada: An Update for Lenders

Financiers and lenders to Canadian companies have become increasingly concerned about potential priorities of pension claims in Canada over the past year following the 1 February 2013 decision of the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) in the Indalex case (Sun Indalex Finance, LLC v. United Steelworkers, 2013 SCC 6). Much of this concern may have been caused by conjecture as to how the SCC's decision would be applied in future insolvency proceedings, rather than the relatively narrow issue that was actually before the SCC in Indalex. A more recent decision of the Ontario Superior Court (Grant Forest Products v. GE Canada Leasing Services Company, 2013 ONSC 5933) helps to clarify issues arising from Indalex in a manner that may be helpful to lenders. Published in the January 2014 issue of Financier Worldwide.