Alberta West Transport: 45 pieces of equipment outside the receivership

The list runs to 45 entries. It opens with a 2014 Tigercat 845C feller buncher and closes with a 2002 Hitachi log loader, and between them sit a second feller buncher, two Hitachi processors fitted with Waratah heads, a John Deere grapple skidder, a Lamtrac crawler mulcher, four self-loading hayrack log trailers, two sets of B-train log trailers, six tractors, two winch trucks, four lowbeds, five bottom-dump trailers, two dozers and four excavators, the oldest of it a 1992 Caterpillar D5H, per the Affidavit of Marlene Starenky, Aug. 10, 2026, para. 15 and Ex. "P". The same list is attached to the order that put three related Grande Prairie companies into receivership, as Schedule "A", headed "Excluded Assets" — property that "shall not be subject to this Receivership Order or be included within the definition of Property in this Order," per the Consent Receivership Order, Aug. 20, 2026, para. 2 and Sched. "A".

On August 20, 2026, Justice G.S. Dunlop of the Court of King's Bench of Alberta, at Edmonton, appointed Grant Thornton Limited receiver and manager of Alberta West Transport Ltd., Bison Oilfield Services Ltd. and Ridgeline Forest Contracting Ltd. under s. 243(1) of the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act, in Action No. 2603-17562, on the application of Royal Bank of Canada. The order recites "the consent of the Debtors to the appointment of the Receiver," and Tyler J. Keddie of Stringam LLP endorsed that consent on August 17 as counsel for all three companies, per the Consent Receivership Order, Aug. 20, 2026, pp. 1, 14. RBC's application also invoked s. 13 of the Judicature Act, per the Application to Appoint a Receiver, Aug. 13, 2026, paras. 30–31.

Three companies, one bank

The corporate searches attached to RBC's affidavit sketch a small group. Ridgeline Forest Contracting was incorporated on September 22, 2009 as 1491489 Alberta Ltd. and took its present name six days later. It holds 70% of the voting shares of Alberta West, which took its present form by amalgamation on July 1, 2017 and carries Bison West Transport as a registered trade name. Bison Oilfield was incorporated on May 30, 2017. All three have registered offices in Grande Prairie, per the Affidavit of Marlene Starenky, Aug. 10, 2026, paras. 3–5 and Exs. "A"–"C". Alberta West's website says the company was formed in 2013 with a single winch tractor and a scissor-neck trailer, to provide heavy hauling for the oil and gas, forestry and major manufacturing industries. The filed record gives no headcount, revenue or description of operations.

RBC lent to each of them. Alberta West had a $300,000 revolving demand facility and a $37,000 credit card facility; Bison Oilfield a $550,000 revolving demand facility and a $20,000 card; Ridgeline Forest an $800,000 non-revolving term facility, most recently renewed on October 15, 2025, and a $20,000 card. Each company granted a general security agreement: Alberta West's is dated March 18, 2016, Ridgeline Forest's August 11, 2016, and Bison Oilfield's January 18, 2019. Ridgeline Forest added a $1,150,000 collateral mortgage and an assignment of rents over 1.58 hectares at 3902 97th Street in Grande Prairie, and all of that security stands behind each borrower's facilities. On top of it, each company guaranteed the debts of the other two, in six guarantees capped at amounts between $450,000 and $830,000, per the Affidavit of Marlene Starenky, Aug. 10, 2026, paras. 6–14. Three directors had also given limited personal guarantees, and RBC's counsel made demand on each of them on April 30, 2026, per the Affidavit of Marlene Starenky, Aug. 10, 2026, Ex. "Q", pp. 147, 157, 167–168.

April, and Fort McMurray

The affidavit is affirmed by Marlene Starenky, a senior manager in RBC's Special Loans and Advisory Group, and it states the default in one sentence: "Beginning in April of 2026, the Defendants failed to make payments on the Credit Facilities when due and payable," per the Affidavit of Marlene Starenky, Aug. 10, 2026, paras. 1, 16. At April 21, 2026 Alberta West owed $335,606.53, Bison Oilfield $574,619.32 and Ridgeline Forest $789,379.06. On April 27 Ms. Starenky travelled to Fort McMurray to meet the directors of each company, and on April 27 and 28, she says, "I was advised by the Directors for the Defendants that the Indebtedness would not be repaid," per the Affidavit of Marlene Starenky, Aug. 10, 2026, paras. 17–20. RBC's application calls those two days "a meeting and a site visit," per the Application to Appoint a Receiver, Aug. 13, 2026, para. 17.

Borden Ladner Gervais delivered demands and notices of intention to enforce security under s. 244 of the BIA on April 30, calling for payment by May 10. The affidavit gives no account of why the payments stopped, and the docket holds no affidavit from the companies. By July 24 the three balances stood at $336,064.71, $588,696.54 and $800,189.52, for a total of $1,724,950.77, per the Affidavit of Marlene Starenky, Aug. 10, 2026, paras. 21, 23 and Ex. "Q", pp. 139–141. Grant Thornton had signed its consent to act on July 22, per the Consent to Act, Aug. 13, 2026, p. 1.