Cash Today: 256 loans on the ledgers, 44,137 on the data tape

On September 22, representatives of MNP Ltd. went to Cash Today Inc.'s west Edmonton premises, met the company's vice-president of operations and risk management, and reviewed its loan software. The receiver identified three active loan ledgers, one for each of the company's locations: 59 loans with a total balance of $246,979 at south Edmonton, 103 loans and $397,297 at west Edmonton, and 94 loans and $245,173 at Red Deer. It was also given three active ledgers held by a related company, Family 1st Financial Inc. The vice-president told the receiver that these were, to her knowledge, the only active loan ledgers, and the receiver found no others; the south Edmonton location, it confirmed that day, is no longer operating, per the First Report of MNP Ltd., Oct. 13, 2026, paras. 32–36, 42. The applicant, Grow Capital Two Inc. (GC2), totals the Cash Today ledgers at 256 loans and $889,449, and the Family 1st ledgers at 29 loans and $45,120, per its Brief of Law, Oct. 14, 2026, para. 39.

The same day GC2, administrator under Cash Today's financing agreement with a group of individual and corporate lenders, gave the receiver the data tape Cash Today had delivered to it for December 31, 2025. On it, the company "purported to have 44,137 active loans and a resulting total loan portfolio balance of $228,685,520." A tape for December 31, 2024 listed 24,135 loans and $104,318,384; the receiver understands from GC2 that it was represented as only partial, per the First Report, Oct. 13, 2026, paras. 43–44 and the Brief of Law, Oct. 14, 2026, para. 7.

The receiver cannot match one set of records to the other. The ledgers identify loans by customer number and the tapes by loan number, so it "cannot confirm if the loans included on the Loan Ledgers are included in the historical loan data tapes and vice versa." Between the two tapes it found a "material discrepancy": approximately 12,788 loans totalling $55,877,109, with contract dates before December 31, 2024, are on the 2025 tape but not the 2024 one, which may, it says, be because the earlier tape was partial. A sample of the physical loan files matched the ledgers without material discrepancy, and in its sampling the receiver found no file that was not on them, per the First Report, Oct. 13, 2026, paras. 39–40, 46–47.

When this case was reported here on September 29, MNP held what its report calls "a limited investigative appointment," without the power to take possession. The First Report, filed October 13, ends by asking for more: the limited powers "are insufficient to permit it to effectively identify the Company's property or monitor its operations," per the First Report, Oct. 13, 2026, paras. 80–81, 83.

What the company told the receiver

Asked for a meeting, Cash Today's then counsel, Henein Hutchison Robitaille LLP, told the receiver that management preferred to answer in writing, per the First Report, Oct. 13, 2026, paras. 27–30. The written answer came on September 24, with counsel's caveat that the information came from the company and had not been independently verified. There are no bank accounts in the company's legal name, it said. Externally prepared financial statements for 2023, 2024 and 2025 do not exist, nor do management-prepared monthly statements or general ledgers from January 2025 onward, an operating budget or cash flow forecasts. And the company could not make its next loan or interest payment to GC2, per the First Report, Oct. 13, 2026, paras. 48, 51.

On October 2, again unverified, the company named the accounts it had used since January 2022 to transfer, deposit, disburse and hold cash: three Bank of Montreal business accounts, one in US dollars, all belonging to 1549932 Alberta Ltd. In-store payments are deposited into one of them, and invoices and expenses are paid from it, per the First Report, Oct. 13, 2026, App. "N". BMO confirmed that Cash Today holds no accounts with it, and the receiver understands from certain debenture holders that subscription and loan proceeds went to a BMO account or accounts in 1549932 Alberta's name. Its registered directors, the receiver says, are Grant Patterson and Cameron Schiffner, Cash Today's directors as at September 18, per the First Report, Oct. 13, 2026, paras. 8, 14–15, 62–64. Some of Cash Today's registrations against borrowers' collateral also name 1549932 Alberta as a secured party; asked why, the vice-president wrote that "The liens are placed under Cash Today Inc. and 1549932 Alberta Ltd.," per the First Report, Oct. 13, 2026, para. 41 and App. "Q".

On September 29 a debenture holder gave the receiver management-prepared financial statements for Cash Today as at March 31, 2026, which the receiver is advised were part of an investment due diligence package. The receiver asked the company that day to explain reported cash of approximately $5.4 million "notwithstanding the Company's statement that it has no bank accounts"; loans receivable of approximately $236.4 million, against "the materially lower active loan balances" on the ledgers; and a debenture listing of approximately $613.2 million, against reported current and long-term debt of approximately $181.3 million, per the First Report, Oct. 13, 2026, paras. 54–55. On the afternoon of October 2, Henein Hutchison Robitaille delivered an unfiled notice of withdrawal as lawyer of record, naming Duncan Craig LLP as the company's new lawyer, per the First Report, Oct. 13, 2026, para. 59 and App. "P".

The debenture holders

From a debenture listing the company prepared, the receiver has identified approximately 270 creditors and debenture holders with potential claims totalling more than $613,000,000. It has found "a number of inaccuracies in the listing" and suggests the amount "could be overstated by at least $190,000,000," based on discussions with debenture holders and correspondence from the company's former counsel. Several debenture holders have expressed concerns to it about "various inconsistent representations made to them in the course of their subscription," per the First Report, Oct. 13, 2026, paras. 65, 67.

Some of the debentures the receiver has reviewed, though not all, stipulate that the subscription money be used solely to acquire assets, typically a loan portfolio, and be held until then in a segregated bank account of Cash Today. The receiver "cannot confirm or conclude" whether Cash Today used the money on those terms, nor whether any proceeds were held in a segregated account. Several debenture holders have given it records indicating their subscription proceeds were "rather, deposited or paid to the order of a BMO account held by 154 Alberta," its short name for 1549932 Alberta, per the First Report, Oct. 13, 2026, paras. 70–72. The company told the receiver on September 24 that it had begun to receive demand notices from debenture holders, none of whom, to its knowledge, had started formal proceedings, per the First Report, Oct. 13, 2026, App. "J".

Who is in charge of Cash Today

Cash Today's voting shares are held by Patterson's and Schiffner's holding companies, 2327619 Alberta Ltd. and 2327624 Alberta Ltd., the two guarantors of GC2's loan. The receiver understands from the company's previous counsel that Patterson passed away the week of September 21, and understands that Schiffner resigned as a director effective October 1. It sent its outstanding requests to Schiffner on October 4 and had received no response when it reported, per the First Report, Oct. 13, 2026, paras. 9–11, 22, 60.

On the morning of October 5 the vice-president, to whom the receiver had also sent its requests, wrote back with questions of her own: who was now in charge of Cash Today, how employee wages would be paid "if no one has access to the bank accounts," who would take investor calls to the stores, and "Is Cash Today still issuing loans?" The receiver answered that the receivership order "is limited in nature, and we have no authority to manage or operate the business or take possession of assets." Fourteen minutes later she wrote that she would send staff home, "as none of us will be working for free," and would pay the wages owed that day "from the store's cash drawers, with the receipts left on the front desk," per the First Report, Oct. 13, 2026, para. 61 and App. "Q".