Assembly Corp: the liens come off title

At 2217 Kingston Road, the Thunder Woman Healing Lodge Society is building a healing lodge for Indigenous women leaving the correctional system. At 215 Wellesley Street East, the Elizabeth Fry Society Toronto Branch is building supportive housing. The YMCA of Greater Toronto has a project at 7 Vanauley Street; WoodGreen Community Housing has one at 60 Bowden Street. All four are charitable or not-for-profit owners, variously supported and funded by the City of Toronto and Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. Between them the buildings are 50% to 95% finished, per Notice of Motion (Lien Regularization Order), returnable August 11, 2026, paras. 5, 16.

They all engaged the same builder, and on May 6, 2026 that builder filed a notice of intention to make a proposal.

What Assembly built, and how the contracts ran

Assembly Corp. operates a construction business specialising in affordable housing and social-infrastructure projects. GlassRatner Restructuring Inc. was named proposal trustee on the NOI, per Notice of Motion, August 11, 2026, paras. 1–2.

The contractual structure matters more than usual here, because it explains where the liens landed. Each project owner engaged Assembly under a Developed Asset Purchase Agreement — a DAPA — to design, construct and deliver a completed building. Assembly then went downstream: a CCDC 5B construction-management contract with Loftin Inc., under which Loftin retained and managed subcontractors and suppliers, and on some projects a CCDC 30 integrated project delivery agreement among Assembly, the consultant, the contractor and the design professionals and key trades making up the IPD team.

The detail that does the work: Assembly — not the project owner — is generally the named "Owner" under the CCDC contracts. The chain runs from the charity to Assembly under the DAPA, and from Assembly to Loftin and the IPD team under the CCDC agreements, per Notice of Motion, August 11, 2026, para. 8.

So when Assembly stopped paying, the trades' liens attached to land owned by charities that had contracted with Assembly and had no contract with the lienholders at all.

Two extensions, an interim receiver, and a warning

On June 4, 2026, Justice Steele extended the time for Assembly to file a proposal, authorised it — with the proposal trustee's approval — to comply with section 8 of the Construction Act and pay statutory trust amounts to beneficiary subcontractors and suppliers whether the trust arose before or after the proceedings began, and appointed GlassRatner as interim receiver under s. 47.1 of the BIA, per Order of Steele J., June 4, 2026 and Endorsement of Steele J., June 4, 2026, paras. 1, 3, 6.

The interim receivership was the senior secured creditor's price for supporting the extension. PaceZero Sustainable Credit Fund II, first-ranked, backed more time provided GlassRatner was also appointed interim receiver. The order deliberately did not have GlassRatner take possession or control of Assembly's property; it gave the trustee powers beyond its trustee role — approving disbursements, overseeing the management and operation of the business, per Endorsement of Steele J., June 4, 2026, para. 3.

Justice Steele also approved an administration charge of up to $250,000, and recorded the proposal trustee's observation that the registration of construction liens and the resulting notice holdbacks may reduce forecasted cash receipts — with the note that Assembly may need to seek a lien regularization order or similar relief, per Endorsement of Steele J., June 4, 2026, paras. 5, 9–11.

That was June. Justice Myers extended the proceeding again on July 20 and expanded the interim receiver's powers to help complete and transition the projects, and made a lift-stay order on August 7, per Order of Myers J., July 20, 2026 and Order of Myers J., August 7, 2026.