ANS 1993: the receiver may not run the daycares

There is a line in most receivership orders that nobody reads, because it is boilerplate: the receiver may operate the business. This order says the opposite, and names the five places where it applies.

Five centres, six companies, one director

The respondents are six Alberta corporations and the woman who owns them. Between them they run child care in Edmonton and Spruce Grove under names local parents would recognise:

• Dickinsfield Child Development Centre, at 9228 144 Avenue NW in Edmonton, operated by 1416452 Alberta Ltd.
• Little Star Montessori Early Learning Centre and Roots Montessori Early Learning Centre – Pioneer, operated by 2308213 Alberta Ltd., which the order locates together at 280 Pioneer Road in Spruce Grove
• Learned Robin Day Care, Learned Robin Montessori Daycare and Seven Stones Daycare & OSC, at 10180 101 Street NW in Edmonton, operated by P & N Development Ltd.
• Root Montessori – ELC 1, at 6413 Cartmell Place SW in Edmonton
• Root Montessori – ELC 2, at 751 Daniels Way SW — a condominium unit ANS 1993 Ltd. held an interest in, which the record says was intended to be developed and operated as a childcare facility together with 786 N and S Enterprises Ltd.

per Affidavit of Michael Wells, June 23, 2026, paras. 7–12 and Interim Receivership Order, July 2, 2026, para. 4.

786 Enterprises sits above three of them as sole shareholder — of 224 Alberta, 141 Alberta and P & N Development. Above all of it is Razia Qarni, who at all material times was the sole director and beneficial shareholder of the borrowers and who personally guaranteed the loan agreements. She is a named respondent in her own right, per Wells Affidavit, June 23, 2026, paras. 5, 11.

A seventh company, 2366979 Alberta Ltd., was a borrower but is not a respondent. Its shares were sold in December 2025 and the proceeds went against its debt; RBC discharged its security against that company on January 20, 2026, on the express condition that everyone else assumed the $8,522.88 left over, per Wells Affidavit, June 23, 2026, paras. 13, 34–35.

$5.8 million, built in under two years

RBC lent into this group between September 19, 2023 and July 9, 2025 — a stack of credit agreements, credit-card agreements, a lease and two amending agreements, secured by general security agreements, chattel mortgages, land mortgages and Ms. Qarni's guarantees, all perfected at the Alberta Personal Property Registry and the Land Titles Office, per Wells Affidavit, June 23, 2026, paras. 14, 24–28.

As at June 19, 2026 the payout figure was $5,841,468.50 — $5,799,062.08 of principal, interest, fees and GST, plus $42,406.42 of invoiced legal fees, with professional fees still accruing. Two borrowers carry most of it: 2242246 Alberta Ltd. at $3,287,352.34 and ANS 1993 Ltd. at $1,410,493.04. Interest runs at a per diem set out borrower by borrower, per Wells Affidavit, June 23, 2026, paras. 57–58.

Behind the bank sits the taxman. As at February 13, 2026 the borrowers owed the Canada Revenue Agency $721,625.28, and the composition is the part worth pausing on: $598,515.59 of that total is payroll — $449,203.54 of it at P & N Development alone, with $93,451.54 at 141 Alberta, $46,108.14 at 230 Alberta, $9,474.63 at 224 Alberta and $277.74 at 236 Alberta. Source deductions are held in trust; they are not ordinary trade debt, and in a receivership they rank ahead of a secured lender's charge, per Wells Affidavit, June 23, 2026, para. 41.

Two governments were already collecting directly. On April 13, 2026 Alberta Treasury Board and Finance served RBC with a Requirement to Pay $14,307.06 on 141 Alberta's account, and on April 21 the City of Edmonton issued a tax recovery notice against 224 Alberta for unpaid municipal taxes, per Wells Affidavit, June 23, 2026, para. 46.

A forbearance that never started

RBC issued demands with notices of intention to enforce security under section 244(1) of the BIA on November 4, 2025, giving ten days. By November 14 nothing had been paid, per Wells Affidavit, June 23, 2026, paras. 29–32.

What followed was five months of a sale that did not happen. From about October 2025 Ms. Qarni was marketing the shares of two of the companies. A purchase agreement for 230 Alberta was signed in February 2026 and the prospective buyer paid a $400,000 deposit. On March 13 the respondents' counsel advised it was unlikely to close and that a broker was looking for an alternate buyer. In April the deposit was settled — and the condition of that settlement was that Ms. Qarni give the prospective purchasers a $350,000 promissory note secured by mortgages registered against the same properties, behind RBC's, per Wells Affidavit, June 23, 2026, paras. 33, 36–40.

Then came the forbearance agreement, on April 7, 2026. RBC agreed to hold off until July 31. In exchange the respondents took on the leftover $8,522.88, paid a $3,000 fee, and promised $50,000 on May 1, $50,000 on June 1, $50,000 on July 1, and the entire balance by July 31. They also signed, and left with the bank, three executed consent orders to be released on default: a consent judgment jointly and severally for the principal plus full-indemnity costs, a consent receivership order, and a consent bankruptcy order, per Wells Affidavit, June 23, 2026, paras. 43–45.

The first $50,000 was never paid. RBC served a notice of default on May 5 demanding it by May 8; agreed on May 6 to extend to May 15; agreed again on May 14 to extend to May 21; and on May 21 was still unpaid. On May 25, 2026 the bank terminated the forbearance, per Wells Affidavit, June 23, 2026, paras. 47–52.

Michael Wells, a senior manager in RBC's Special Loans and Advisory Services group, put the bank's position in one sentence: "RBC is concerned about the financial condition of the Corporate Respondents and has lost faith in the management of the Corporate Respondents", per Wells Affidavit, June 23, 2026, para. 53.

The information gap sharpened it. RBC demanded documents on June 11 under the loan agreements; on June 18 the respondents replied that they were "gathering the information [RBC] need[s]"; as at the date the affidavit was sworn, nothing had been produced, per Wells Affidavit, June 23, 2026, paras. 54–56.

On that record the bank asked for a receiver. Its case was solvency in the plainest terms — the respondents "do not have any funds available to pay their debts generally as they become due" — and its request was for an appointment **under section 243 of the *BIA***, which Wells deposed was "just, convenient, and necessary to protect the interests of RBC and to preserve and realize on the Security in an orderly fashion" and "the most effective and efficient way to realize on the value of the assets and minimize the costs associated with this process", per Wells Affidavit, June 23, 2026, paras. 61, 65–66 and Application of Royal Bank of Canada, June 24, 2026.