Bastian Holdings: the trustee holds the shares, and now the companies

On June 30, 2026, a manager at BDO Canada Limited emailed Craig and Kyle Smith four questions about their companies, among them who owned the West Hastings company and whether Whitewater Steelers Reinforcing Ltd. did anything besides hold shares. Kyle Smith answered within two hours, in red type under each question, and wrote above his answers: "I do not have a Org Chart for Krystle and Bastian holdings." The chart BDO filed five weeks later is its own, based on what it had been able to collect from the brothers; the share registers it asked for had not arrived, per the First Report of the Trustee, Aug. 5, 2026, paras. 13, 21 and Apps. A, K.

BDO is the brothers' trustee in bankruptcy. On applications by Royal Bank of Canada, both were adjudged bankrupt on June 13, 2025, and the Court of Appeal dismissed their appeals on June 16, 2026. As bankrupts they cannot act as directors, which BDO says leaves "a corporate governance issue for companies where the Smiths remain the only, principal, or effective directors"; and the trustee, although their shares have vested in it, is a director of none of those companies, per the First Report, paras. 1–4, 85, 88. On August 7 BDO, as trustee, petitioned the Supreme Court of British Columbia to appoint BDO receiver and manager of eight of them under s. 39 of the Law and Equity Act, and Justice Loo made the order on August 26, 2026, per the Receivership Order, Aug. 26, 2026, para. 2.

A formwork company, and what it left behind

The companies grew around Whitewater Concrete Ltd., which Craig Smith described in an August 2025 affidavit as "formerly a leading formwork company in Vancouver," founded by the brothers and their father, with more than 300 employees at its height and work on BC Women's and Children's Hospital, Royal Columbian Hospital and the new St. Paul's Hospital. In his account, Kyle Smith was away until February 2022 from the estimating and cost management he had overseen, and that absence and the construction market during and after the pandemic cut revenue and produced losses on large projects, St. Paul's and Royal Columbian among them. In 2023 HSBC Bank Canada, the operating companies' bank for 30 years, asked them to find new banking; they could not, and HSBC placed them in special credit. A development group offered to buy them on March 13, 2024; RBC then acquired HSBC's Canadian operations and started receivership proceedings on June 15, 2024, after which, he says, the buyer withdrew, per the Affidavit #1 of Craig Allen Smith, Aug. 5, 2025, paras. 5, 8–14, App. D to the First Report.

Deloitte Restructuring Inc. became receiver over assets of Whitewater Concrete, Whitewater Developments Ltd. and 145 Golden Drive Ltd. on July 2, 2024. The Coquitlam property at 145 Golden Drive sold for $21,218,000, closing July 30, 2025, and approximately $20,990,000 went to Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC). 145 Golden Drive Ltd. was adjudged bankrupt on December 23, 2025, with BDO as trustee, and Whitewater Concrete on July 8, 2026. By July 30, 2026, BDO had received claims of $5,843,510.23 against Craig Smith's estate and $5,360,737.99 against Kyle Smith's, including a guarantee claim of $3,381,419 from the second mortgagees of a Maple Ridge property, filed in full in each estate, per the First Report, paras. 17–18, 78, 80.

Two holding companies, three properties

At the top sit Bastian Holdings Ltd., wholly owned by Craig Smith, and Krystle Holdings Ltd., wholly owned by Kyle Smith, both incorporated May 24, 2002 and neither reporting revenue. Together they own Whitewater Steelers Reinforcing Ltd., Skaw Properties Ltd. and 1226745 B.C. Ltd. Skaw owns 207 – 53 West Hastings Holdings Ltd. and 27222 Lougheed Highway Holdings Ltd.; 1226745 owns 1226734 B.C. Ltd. BDO was told by its bailiff that the shares of Bastian, Krystle, Skaw and 1226745 have been seized, per the First Report, paras. 22–24, 27–28, 32–33, 36, 41, 43, 55, 61, 66–67.

The largest asset is 27222 Lougheed Highway in Maple Ridge, held by the Lougheed company as bare trustee for Skaw: an 85,575-square-foot manufacturing facility on 9.3 acres with more than 1,500 feet of Fraser River frontage, a floating dock and bridge cranes, according to the Colliers brochure in BDO's report, with A&H Steel (Vancouver) Ltd. as its one tenant. It was assessed at $27,739,000 as at July 1, 2025, and BDC, holding the first mortgage, was owed $5,257,111.04 at July 5, 2026. 1226734 B.C. Ltd. holds 8653 River Road South in Dewdney as bare trustee for 1226745; a Grover Elliott appraisal valued it at $21,000,000, and $6,950,752 was owing on the first of two Bank of Montreal mortgages at March 17, 2025. The Hastings company owns an office unit at 207 – 53 West Hastings Street assessed at $842,000. WCL Formwork Ltd., which the brothers told BDO is owned by their spouses, rents at River Road and Hastings, per the First Report, paras. 38, 49–51, 55–56, 63, 69–70 and Apps. D (paras. 31–32), T.

Whitewater Steelers Reinforcing held shares of A&H Steel (Vancouver) Ltd., which Deloitte described as a 2019 joint venture between Whitewater Concrete and A&H Steel Ltd., 30% owned by the Smiths and run from the Lougheed property. On July 10, 2026, Justice Hayes-Richards of the Court of King's Bench of Alberta declared the conduct of Whitewater Steelers Reinforcing, Krystle and Bastian "oppressive or unfairly prejudicial to or unfairly disregards the interests of the Applicants" under s. 242 of the Business Corporations Act, and vested the reinforcing company's shares and the three companies' shareholder loans in A&H Hold Co. (B.C.) Ltd.; the order records that the trustee did not oppose. A&H's counsel wired the $653,747.87 in consideration to BDO's lawyers, MLT Aikins LLP, on July 15, to be held in trust pending agreement or a court order, per the First Report, paras. 33, 81–83 and Apps. HH, II, L.

Shares without a board

BDO's appointment as trustee, the petition says, "does not, by itself, appoint the Trustee as a director or officer of the Smith Companies," and without more it cannot control their bank accounts, obtain their records, pursue their claims or investigate their transactions. Appointing itself a director would be impractical, the petition adds, because any director would face liability under the Business Corporations Act, the Income Tax Act, the Excise Tax Act, the Canada Pension Plan Act, the Employment Insurance Act and the BIA, per the Petition to the Court, Aug. 7, 2026, Part 2, para. 58 and Part 3, para. 84(b).

Kyle Smith's July 3 email raised a further difficulty. He told BDO that his wife held shares in Krystle and a family member was its sole director "now that I am no longer allowed to be director," and named family members as directors, or possible directors, of the other companies. BDO says those statements are inconsistent with the corporate searches and the brothers' own affidavits, and it has seen no document evidencing a change; on July 24 its counsel wrote to three of them that "you proceed entirely at your own risk and peril," per the First Report, paras. 30, 35, 87 and Apps. I, JJ. The petition states the concern directly: the purported appointments "suggest that the Smith Brothers intend to deal with the Companies' Property," and the proceeds of a Lougheed sale "could be dissipated by any appointed directors, whether those parties are properly appointed or not," per the Petition, Part 3, para. 84(c)(ii), (iv).