Camera E-Motion: a sealed sale of the building above the metro line

On October 23, 2026, Registrar Patrick Gosselin of the Superior Court in Montréal signed two orders that dispose of a building at 1453 and 1455 rue Saint-Timothée, in Montréal's Ville-Marie borough, held since November 2025 by the receiver of its owner, Camera E-Motion inc. The first approves the sale of the building by Camera E-Motion, represented by its receiver, MNP Ltée, to Investissements 3,38 inc. under an asset purchase agreement, and vests it in the purchaser, free and clear, when the receiver delivers its closing certificate, per the Approval and Vesting Order, Oct. 23, 2026, paras. 5–6, 10, 13. The second, issued the same day, authorizes the receiver to distribute the net proceeds of the building "in its entirety, in accordance with the applicable laws and in accordance with this Order" [translation], and ends the receivership once MNP serves a certificate that its work is complete, per the Distribution and Discharge Order, Oct. 23, 2026, paras. 7, 13, 17.

Neither order states the price. The purchase agreement, the accepted offer with the receiver's email accepting it, and Annexes E and F of the receiver's report of October 20, 2026 are to be kept confidential and under seal until the earlier of the closing of the transaction and payment of the price, or a further order of the court, per the Approval and Vesting Order, Oct. 23, 2026, para. 24. Neither BDC's motion for the two orders nor that report is in the record read for this piece.

Camera E-Motion describes itself as specializing in robotics, production and post-production for film, and the Banque de développement du Canada (BDC) lent it money to buy the building and renovate it, work that began in the summer of 2018, according to BDC's Motion to Appoint a Receiver, Nov. 7, 2025, paras. 3, 9. When BDC went to court in November 2025, its motion described a site that had been inactive for several years and a building that was unoccupied and "for all practical purposes abandoned" [translation], with no financing in view to finish the project, per the BDC's Motion to Appoint a Receiver, Nov. 7, 2025, para. 13.

A renovation BDC says stalled in 2020

BDC lent under two offer letters, of July 24, 2018 and November 28, 2019: term loans with authorized amounts of $300,000 and $6,085,200, secured by an immovable hypothec of $6,500,000, plus an additional hypothec of 25%, signed before a notary on January 14, 2020 and published in the Montréal land register the next day, per the BDC's Motion to Appoint a Receiver, Nov. 7, 2025, paras. 5–6.

The causes that follow are BDC's account, from its motion. The renovation, the motion says, ran into "numerous cost overruns" [translation] arising from environmental contamination issues, major structural problems, and the fact that the building stands above a metro line, so that some construction equipment was too heavy to be used there, per the BDC's Motion to Appoint a Receiver, Nov. 7, 2025, para. 10. Because of the pandemic, BDC says, work on the site was suspended early in 2020 and the building was "substantially secured" [translation]. Camera E-Motion could not restart the work, the motion says, for want of its own resources and because of the financial difficulties of its affiliated operating company, 9089-1193 Québec Inc., which does business as Real by Fake. The motion traces those difficulties to changes the Québec government made to its film tax-credit programs, successive strikes in film production, and the death of a filmmaker it calls a "partner of the business" [translation], per the BDC's Motion to Appoint a Receiver, Nov. 7, 2025, paras. 11–12. The building had been on the market for more than a year, the motion adds, without a transaction, per the BDC's Motion to Appoint a Receiver, Nov. 7, 2025, para. 14.

The forbearance, the tax-sale notice and the motion

BDC's motion says that on or about June 5, 2025, BDC and Camera E-Motion, among others, entered into a forbearance agreement, whose period expired on September 30, and that the company failed to make the payments set out in paragraphs 8.1 and 8.2 of that agreement when they fell due. By the motion's account, a legal hypothec in favour of the Minister of National Revenue was published against the building on May 29, 2025, and municipal taxes for 2024 and 2025 and school taxes for 2023 through 2025 had not been paid in full. On September 10, 2025, the motion says, the Ville de Montréal published a notice of sale for unpaid property taxes in the land register, and on October 8 BDC paid the arrears, $24,831.00, "in order to avoid the sale of the building by the Ville de Montréal" [translation], per the BDC's Motion to Appoint a Receiver, Nov. 7, 2025, paras. 15–17.

BDC put the debt at $4,195,511.21 as at August 22, 2025, with interest and fees still to be added, and demanded payment by a letter dated September 3. It had sent a notice of intention to enforce its security under s. 244 of the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act (BIA) on November 13, 2024, and on May 8, 2025 a prior notice of the exercise of a hypothecary right, by sale under judicial control, per the BDC's Motion to Appoint a Receiver, Nov. 7, 2025, paras. 18–19, 21–22.

The motion of November 7, 2025, sworn by a director in BDC's business restructuring group, asked for a receiver under s. 243 of the BIA over the building alone. The appointment would be "particularly limited" [translation], it said: "it covers only the Building and does not extend to Camera E-Motion's other property or activities" [translation]. The building was vacant, it said, and needed major work before it could be operated, citing an appraisal by Raymond Joyal inc. dated February 6, 2025 that BDC submitted under confidential cover and asked the court to keep sealed until the sale was completed; it also pointed to a risk of environmental contamination from a gas station on the lot next door, per the BDC's Motion to Appoint a Receiver, Nov. 7, 2025, para. 26(e)–(g) and conclusion [3]. With BDC's support, the motion said, the receiver would be able to establish the best strategy for marketing the building and to undertake "a targeted solicitation" [translation]; the proposed receiver, it said, expected to be able to finalize a sale in the six months ending April 30, 2026, per the BDC's Motion to Appoint a Receiver, Nov. 7, 2025, paras. 30, 33.

The receiver takes the keys

Registrar Vincent M. Aubé granted the motion on November 13, 2025, noting the absence of any contest, and appointed MNP Ltée receiver of the building until its sale and the filing of the receiver's final report and final statement of receipts and disbursements, or an order of the court ending the mandate. The order authorizes the receiver to borrow from BDC, as interim lender, up to $305,000 in principal plus interest, payable on demand at BDC's prime rate plus 5% a year, and secures the borrowing with an interim lender's charge of up to $246,000. That charge ranks ahead of every other security on the building, the provincial and federal deemed trusts included, but immediately after a $100,000 administration charge in favour of the receiver, its counsel and its other advisers. The receiver was to seek the court's leave before selling, per the Order Appointing a Receiver, Nov. 13, 2025, paras. 5, 7, 9, 12, 25, 27–28, 31–32, Annex A para. 3.