Proceedings.

Guide

CCAA vs bankruptcy vs receivership: what's the difference in Canada

When a Canadian company can't pay its debts, it can restructure under the CCAA or a proposal, its lender can put in a receiver, or it can go bankrupt. Who controls the business on each route, who decides, how long it takes and what creditors get, drawn from the court record.

Proceedings. · · 25 min read · 34 court filings cited

In this guide6 parts · 17 sections

Part 1 The four routes

  1. What's the difference between CCAA, bankruptcy and receivership?
  2. How does a company end up on each route?
  3. Which route fits the size of the business?

Part 2 Restructuring

  1. The CCAA: when and why
  2. A proposal under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act
  3. Moving from a proposal to the CCAA

Part 3 When the lender or the court decides

  1. Receivership: when the lender chooses
  2. Bankruptcy

Part 4 Time, money and people

  1. How long does each route take?
  2. What does each route cost?
  3. What do creditors get?
  4. Directors and employees

Part 5 Your next steps

  1. What to do now
  2. How to find the case
  3. Questions people ask

Part 6 Sources and the record

  1. Sources
  2. The full record

In 2025, two southwestern Ontario growers ran out of money a few months apart. Upper Canada Growers, a nursery and orchard business in Harrow, filed a notice of intention to make a proposal in January1. Its bank had sent its enforcement notices first2; in May a receiver took over, and the company was deemed bankrupt two days later3. The trustee expected nothing for about $21.5 million of unsecured claims4.

AMCO Farms, a Leamington greenhouse grower with about $54 million of liabilities, filed under the CCAA in August5. By December it had sold its business to a buyer that kept the greenhouse running6. The route a company takes decides who controls it, who supervises it, how long it lasts and what its creditors get.

General information about how Canadian companies have used these proceedings, drawn from the court record and the statutes. Not legal or financial advice about your situation.

Part 1The four routes

What's the difference between CCAA, bankruptcy and receivership?#

Who runs the business, and toward what end. In a proposal or the CCAA the company's own management stays in charge and tries to make a deal with its creditors. In a receivership a receiver takes over, usually for a secured lender, and sells. In a bankruptcy a trustee takes the property and pays creditors in the order the law sets.

Proposal (Division 1)CCAAReceivershipBankruptcy
Who starts itThe companyThe company, or a creditorA secured lenderThe company, or a creditor owed $1,000 or more
Size testDebts of $1,000 or moreMore than $5 million in claimsNoneDebts of $1,000 or more
Who runs the businessManagement; a trustee monitorsManagement; a court-appointed monitorThe receiverThe trustee
How longAbout six months to file the proposalNo fixed limit; the court extends the stayNo fixed limitUntil the trustee is discharged
Creditor voteYes, on the proposalYes, on the planNoneOn the trustee and inspectors only
Secured lendersStayed, with exceptionsStayed by court orderUsually the one enforcingNot stayed
If it failsAutomatic bankruptcyNo automatic bankruptcyNot a rescue: the receiver realizes the property and reportsIt is the end point

The rules behind each cell are in the sections below. Many companies move between routes: a proposal can become a CCAA, and a CCAA or a receivership can end in bankruptcy.

How does a company end up on each route?#

Usually by who moves first. The company can file a notice of intention or apply under the CCAA; its secured lender can send a section 244 notice and ask for a receiver; any creditor owed $1,000 or more can apply to put it into bankruptcy. In the record the routes often join up:

  • Proposal, then CCAA. Just for Laughs moved from notices of intention to the CCAA in ten days, Iovate in 56.
  • Proposal, then receivership and bankruptcy. Upper Canada Growers' bank had moved first; its receiver arrived while the company's proposal period was running out, and the company was deemed bankrupt two days later.
  • Proposal ended by the lenders. Whyte's Foods' proposal ran on its operating lender's timetable and ended in two receiverships and a bankruptcy.
  • CCAA started by a creditor. Darwynn's was, in the court's words, "a creditor-initiated CCAA proceeding", brought by a secured lender controlled by its majority shareholder7.
  • CCAA, then bankruptcy. Just for Laughs sold its businesses under the CCAA, then assigned what was left into bankruptcy8. Darwynn sold its business, and the order ending its CCAA lets the monitor assign it into bankruptcy9.

A company that waits often finds the choice made for it. A lender that has sent its notice can enforce once ten days pass, and a creditor can apply for a bankruptcy order once the company "ceases to meet his liabilities generally as they become due" (BIA s. 42(1)(j)).

Which route fits the size of the business?#

The first sorting is by size. The CCAA applies only if "the total of claims against the debtor company or affiliated debtor companies" is "more than $5,000,000" (CCAA s. 3(1)). A group of affiliated companies can add their claims together. Individuals can't use it. A proposal under Division 1 of the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act has no upper limit, and bankruptcy needs only $1,000 of debts.

The $5 million line is a hard one. Darwynn, an Ontario order-fulfilment company, came in just above it; two of its directors argued it fell below10 and that, if its majority shareholder would not fund it, it should go bankrupt11. The court disagreed:

From the recordDarwynn · Endorsement, Feb. 26, 2026 (corrected Mar. 2, 2026), para. 30

I am satisfied that the company has liabilities exceeding the $5 million threshold. It may be close, but it is a highlighted: black and white cutoff. There is not much detail provided for some of the liability entries. But, as noted above, the Monitor is satisfied to the requisite degree for a first day hearing.

The record bears out the sorting:

Part 2Restructuring

The CCAA: when and why#

The Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act is the flexible route for larger companies. It starts with an application to the superior court of the province where the company has its head office, and it can be made without notice to creditors (CCAA ss. 9–11).

The first order and the stay

The first order can stay creditors for no more than 10 days, and must be limited to what the company reasonably needs to keep operating (s. 11.001); extensions follow for "any period that the court considers necessary", if the company has acted "in good faith and with due diligence" (CCAA s. 11.02). There is no overall cap. AMCO Farms' stay has been extended six times, most recently to November 30, 202612. What the first day looks like from inside:

From the recordAMCO Farms · Endorsement (initial order), Aug. 22, 2025, para. 3

It is clear and uncontested that the Applicants are insolvent and facing a severe liquidity crisis. They have been unable to make payments to suppliers for some time; have had their highlighted: supplies of electricity and natural gas shut off; and are months in arrears on mortgage payments.

The monitor and the charges

The court appoints a monitor, a licensed insolvency trustee that reviews the company's cash flow and reports to the court (CCAA s. 23). The court can also grant charges that rank ahead of existing lenders:

  • Interim (DIP) financing, new money to keep operating. At AMCO Farms its senior lender provided it, $750,000 at first13.
  • An administration charge for the monitor's and lawyers' fees.
  • A directors' charge, without which directors often won't stay. In the initial orders the record can read, the median was $500,000, and about a third granted none at the first hearing. Claire's Canada's was $2.9 million14.

How a CCAA ends

The record shows four endings, often in combination:

  1. A plan creditors vote on. It needs a majority in number and two-thirds in value of each class, then the court's sanction (CCAA s. 6). Claire's Canada's monitor and the company have put one forward to distribute what is left after its sale; the court has set the creditors' meeting for November 17, 202615.
  2. A court-approved sale of the business, as at AMCO Farms.
  3. A reverse vesting order, in which the buyer takes the company itself and the debts it doesn't want are moved out. Iovate, the Oakville maker of Hydroxycut and MuscleTech, used one to keep its natural health product licences and tax losses16.
  4. Termination, then bankruptcy, once the assets are sold, as at Just for Laughs (and as authorized at Darwynn).

Of the CCAAs in the record that began from 2018 to 2024, six in ten produced at least one court-approved sale, about one in five a reverse vesting order and about one in five a plan the court sanctioned; about one in eight saw a receiver appointed. Reverse vesting orders have taken over: among CCAAs that began in 2024, the record shows about 30 against at most five sanctioned plans.

A failed CCAA does not make the company bankrupt automatically. If the plan fails, "either the company or its creditors usually seek to have the debtor's assets liquidated under the applicable provisions of the BIA or to place the debtor into receivership" (Century Services, 2010 SCC 60, para. 14).

A proposal under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act#

The proposal is the route for businesses of any size, and, under the insolvency statutes, the only restructuring route below $5 million. A company files a notice of intention, has 30 days to file its proposal, and can get extensions of up to 45 days each, to about six months in all (BIA s. 50.4). Creditors vote on it and the court approves it. If no proposal is filed in time, creditors vote it down or the court refuses it, the company is deemed bankrupt.

The steps, deadlines and what creditors have been offered are in our guide to Division 1 proposals.

Moving from a proposal to the CCAA#

A notice of intention can be taken up and continued under the CCAA, but only before a proposal is filed (CCAA s. 11.6). Just for Laughs, the Montréal comedy festival group, filed notices of intention on March 5, 202417 and was under the CCAA ten days later18. Iovate's reasons included the proposal route's 45-day rhythm:

From the recordIovate Health Sciences · Factum of the Applicants, Oct. 30, 2025, Part IV.B (no para.)

The Stay of Proceedings under the CCAA would preserve the Iovate Group as a going concern, thereby maximizing enterprise value for the benefit of all stakeholders, and provide it with the necessary breathing space and stability for an orderly restructuring. Continuing the NOI Proceedings under the CCAA would also save costs by highlighted: avoiding a return to Court every 45 days for approval of a stay extension.

Iovate's path, from notice of intention to sale:

Part 3When the lender or the court decides

Receivership: when the lender chooses#

A receivership is the secured lender's remedy, not the company's. As an Alberta court put it in March 2026, the choice between a receivership and a CCAA "is, in most cases, a question of who should be 'driving the bus' - management or a professional insolvency firm"25. A lender enforcing against all or substantially all of a business's property must first send a notice under section 244 and wait ten days (BIA s. 244). Then it asks the court to appoint a receiver as "just or convenient" (s. 243), or appoints one privately under its security. The receiver takes control of the property and usually sells it; management is out.

A notice of intention filed within those ten days stops the lender. Filed later, it does not. That is what happened at Upper Canada Growers:

From the recordUpper Canada Growers · Factum of the Applicant (bank), May 9, 2025, para. 37

The stay of proceedings in effect under subsection 69(1) of the BIA as a result of the Companies filing the NOIs does not stay the Bank from bringing this application. Subsection 69(2)(b) of the BIA provides that the stay of proceedings under subsection 69(1) does not apply to prevent a secured creditor from enforcing their security where they gave notice of intention to enforce under subsection 244(1) highlighted: more than ten days before the debtor filed the notice of intention to make a proposal.

Lenders can shape a proposal before they end it. At Whyte's Foods, the pickle maker, the operating lender's financing required the company to file a notice of intention and complete its sale process by October 10, 202326. When the bids weren't acceptable to the lenders27, the court appointed two receivers and, the same day, 44 days in, ordered the proposal period ended, which put the company into bankruptcy28.

Bankruptcy#

The end of the line for a business. A company goes bankrupt by assigning its property for its creditors (BIA s. 49), by a creditor's application to the court (s. 43), or automatically when a proposal fails. Then:

  • The trustee takes the property. The company "ceases to have any capacity to dispose of or otherwise deal with" it (s. 71).
  • Secured lenders can still enforce. Bankruptcy doesn't stop them unless the court orders otherwise (s. 69.3).
  • Creditors are paid in the order the Act sets, after the secured lenders and the trustee's costs (s. 136).
  • There is no plan and no vote on one. Creditors decide only on the trustee and the inspectors.
  • A company gets no fresh start. It "may not apply for a discharge unless it has satisfied the claims of its creditors in full" (s. 169(4)).

Where a receiver is already in place, the trustee may get little. Upper Canada Growers' trustee expected "no excess proceeds from the Receivership proceedings to distribute to unsecured creditors"29.

Part 4Time, money and people

How long does each route take?#

A proposal has to be filed within about six months of the notice of intention; where a court approved one, approval came a median of about 134 days after the notice (48 company NOIs in the record filed from 2022 to March 2026). A CCAA or a receivership that the record shows ending typically took nine to thirteen months:

In this guide's five CCAAs, the main sale was approved or closed 43 to 208 days after the CCAA order, and every case stayed open after it, for a claims process, a plan or a wind-down toward bankruptcy. Just for Laughs' CCAA ran 432 days before the court ordered it ended, effective on the monitor's certificate30.

What does each route cost?#

The professionals' fees come out of the company's property, usually ahead of other creditors through the administration charge. Where the record holds a whole case's accounts, a CCAA monitor's own fees came to a median of roughly $300,000 to $350,000 (25 cases) and its lawyers' about $170,000 (16); a court receiver's, about $123,000 (79), and its lawyers' about $57,000 (39). Those are fees before disbursements and tax, in finished cases, which skew simpler, and they leave out the company's own lawyers. On bills since 2024, the monitor or receiver and its lawyers billed a median blended rate of about $649 an hour in CCAAs (36 cases) and $488 in receiverships (117).

At Darwynn, the monitor and its lawyers billed about $1.24 million in fees and disbursements from February to September 2026, including HST31. That doesn't include the company's own lawyers.

What do creditors get?#

It depends on the route and on what is left after the secured lenders. In the record:

  • Claire's Canada: the monitor estimates 58% to 62% for ordinary creditors under its plan, against 12% in a bankruptcy32.
  • Just for Laughs: nothing for ordinary creditors after two sales: "no further distributions are contemplated to any of the Applicants' other creditors"33.
  • Upper Canada Growers: nothing expected for about $21.5 million of unsecured claims.

Claire's monitor explained why a plan can beat a bankruptcy even after the business is gone:

From the recordClaire's Canada · Fifth Report of the Monitor, Sept. 4, 2026, s. 4.5 para. 1

The Applicant no longer carries on any business, and the Available Funds represent the entire estate available for the benefit of creditors. In the Monitor's view, the Plan provides for an orderly and cost-effective distribution of the Available Funds to Affected Creditors and for a global resolution of these CCAA proceedings. Further, based on the Monitor's analysis discussed below in Section 6.0, implementation of the Plan is projected to result in a highlighted: greater and more timely recovery for Affected Creditors than a bankruptcy of the Applicant.

How to claim, vote and get paid as a creditor is in our guide for creditors.

CRA

In a bankruptcy, a proposal or a CCAA, CRA's claim for unremitted source deductions keeps its deemed-trust status (BIA s. 67(3); CCAA s. 37), and other Crown claims rank as unsecured (BIA s. 86; CCAA s. 38). A receivership alone does not bring those rules into play. A proposal or a CCAA plan must pay source deductions in full within six months of approval unless CRA agrees otherwise (BIA s. 60(1.1); CCAA s. 6(3)). The GST/HST deemed trust ends in a bankruptcy and doesn't survive a CCAA (Century Services).

In about three in ten bankruptcies whose creditor list the record holds, a tax authority is listed with a deemed-trust claim, typically about $25,000 and almost always unremitted source deductions. One in ten CCAAs whose creditor list the record holds lists one, with a median claim above $1 million.

Directors and employees#

  • Directors' charges protect directors who stay through a CCAA or a proposal against liabilities after the filing. Iovate's directors were later released, but only for the period between filing and closing24.
  • Directors' personal liability for unremitted source deductions and GST/HST (Income Tax Act, s. 227.1; Excise Tax Act, s. 323), and under corporate law for up to six months of unpaid wages (CBCA s. 119), does not end with the filing. A proposal or CCAA only pauses suits against directors, and only a proposal, a plan or a court release can compromise it.
  • Employees owed wages have a claim to $2,000 ranking ahead of other creditors on the company's current assets in a bankruptcy or a receivership (BIA ss. 81.3–81.4), and may qualify for the federal Wage Earner Protection Program.
Part 5Your next steps

What to do now#

How to find the case#

Search the company's name on Proceedings: each proceeding in the record has a case page with the court orders and the monitor's, trustee's or receiver's reports in date order. The Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy keeps a paid search of bankruptcy and insolvency records and a list of CCAA filings.

Questions people ask#

Is the CCAA the same as bankruptcy?

No. A CCAA company keeps operating under its own management, with a court-appointed monitor, while it restructures or sells. A bankrupt company's property passes to a trustee.

Can a company go from a proposal to the CCAA?

Yes, if it has more than $5 million in claims and hasn't yet filed its proposal.

What is the difference between a receiver and a trustee in bankruptcy?

A receiver is appointed, usually for a secured lender, to take control of property and sell it. A trustee in bankruptcy takes all the company's property for all its creditors. Both must be licensed insolvency trustees.

Does a failed CCAA mean bankruptcy?

Not automatically. The stay is usually lifted, and the company or its creditors then turn to bankruptcy or a receivership. A failed proposal, by contrast, makes the company bankrupt automatically.

Who pays for a CCAA?

The company's property. The monitor's and lawyers' fees are usually secured by an administration charge that ranks ahead of existing lenders.

Can creditors start a CCAA?

Yes. Any interested person can apply. Darwynn's CCAA was brought by a secured lender controlled by its majority shareholder7.

Part 6Sources and the record

Sources#

Court filings

Each source links to the filing's entry on its case page.

  1. Upper Canada Growers. Third Report of the Proposal Trustee, May 6, 2025, para. 1 ↩
  2. Upper Canada Growers. Factum of the Applicant (bank), May 9, 2025, para. 6 ↩
  3. Upper Canada Growers. Trustee's Preliminary Report, June 5, 2025, 'Background' (no para.) ↩
  4. Upper Canada Growers. Trustee's Preliminary Report, June 5, 2025, 'Unsecured Creditors' and 'Anticipated Realization and Projected Distribution' (no para.) ↩
  5. AMCO Farms. Endorsement (initial order), Aug. 22, 2025, para. 7 ↩
  6. AMCO Farms. Endorsement (sale approval), Dec. 3, 2025, para. 2 ↩
  7. Darwynn. Endorsement, Feb. 26, 2026 (corrected Mar. 2, 2026), paras. 1, 9, 14 ↩
  8. Just for Laughs. Notice of Bankruptcy and First Meeting of Creditors, Dec. 22, 2025, para. 1 ↩
  9. Darwynn. CCAA Termination Order, Oct. 1, 2026, para. 8 ↩
  10. Darwynn. Aide Memoire of the Respondents, Feb. 25, 2026, paras. 4–5 ↩
  11. Darwynn. Endorsement, Feb. 26, 2026 (corrected Mar. 2, 2026), para. 20 ↩
  12. AMCO Farms. Stay Extension Order, May 29, 2026, para. 3 ↩
  13. AMCO Farms. Endorsement (initial order), Aug. 22, 2025, para. 20 ↩
  14. Claire's Canada. Initial Order, Aug. 6, 2025, para. 23 ↩
  15. Claire's Canada. Meeting Order, Sept. 14, 2026, para. 12 ↩
  16. Iovate Health Sciences. Endorsement (RVO), Apr. 16, 2026, para. 12(a)–(b) ↩
  17. Just for Laughs. Notice of Filing of a Notice of Intention, Mar. 12, 2024, no para. ↩
  18. Just for Laughs. CCAA Transition Order and First Day Initial Order, Mar. 15, 2024, para. 10 ↩
  19. Iovate Health Sciences. Certificate for the Notice of Intention (International), Sept. 5, 2025 ↩
  20. Iovate Health Sciences. Endorsement (RVO), Apr. 16, 2026, para. 1 ↩
  21. Iovate Health Sciences. Endorsement (initial order), Oct. 31, 2025, paras. 18, 26 ↩
  22. Iovate Health Sciences. Endorsement (RVO), Apr. 16, 2026, para. 12 ↩
  23. Iovate Health Sciences. Endorsement, Sept. 22, 2026, para. 4 ↩
  24. Iovate Health Sciences. Endorsement, Sept. 22, 2026, para. 6 ↩
  25. Energera. Reasons for Decision, Mar. 17, 2026, para. 16 ↩
  26. Whyte's Foods. Factum of the Applicant (Farm Credit Canada), Oct. 5, 2023, para. 13 ↩
  27. Whyte's Foods. Second Report of the Proposal Trustee, Oct. 4, 2023, paras. 6.14–6.16 ↩
  28. Whyte's Foods. NOI Termination and Transition Order, Oct. 6, 2023, paras. 2, 6 ↩
  29. Upper Canada Growers. Trustee's Preliminary Report, June 5, 2025, 'Anticipated Realization and Projected Distribution' (no para.) ↩
  30. Just for Laughs. Order — stay extension, CCAA termination, final distribution, May 21, 2025, paras. 10–14 ↩
  31. Darwynn. Fifth Report of the Monitor, Sept. 25, 2026, paras. 50–52 ↩
  32. Claire's Canada. Fifth Report of the Monitor, Sept. 4, 2026, s. 6.0 paras. 2, 4 ↩
  33. Just for Laughs. Application for Stay Extension, CCAA Termination, May 16, 2025, para. 55 ↩
  34. Darwynn. Endorsement, Feb. 26, 2026 (corrected Mar. 2, 2026), para. 22 ↩

Laws and official pages

Official pages were checked on October 10, 2026.

The full record#

Every CCAA proceeding in the record whose initial order was made between January 1 and June 30, 2026: 42 in all, with how each began and how far it had got by October 10, 2026, when 11 were still under way. The first ten, in order of filing:

CompanyProvinceInitial orderHow it beganOutcome so far
ColaborQCJanuary 8, 2026Direct filingSale approved (March 31, 2026)
Mansfield and Phillips Square condosQCJanuary 14, 2026Lender-drivenReverse vesting order (July 28, 2026)
Duchesne et FilsQCJanuary 15, 2026Direct filingAssets to lenders (June 5, 2026), then bankruptcy (September 1, 2026)
Spring Loaded TechnologyNSJanuary 26, 2026Direct filingReverse vesting order (April 1, 2026)
AyurcannONJanuary 30, 2026Direct filingReverse vesting order (April 28, 2026)
Toys "R" Us CanadaONFebruary 3, 2026Direct filingSale approved (June 22, 2026)
Green Impact PartnersABFebruary 4, 2026Lender-drivenSale approved (July 21, 2026)
ThentiaONFebruary 9, 2026From a receivershipReverse vesting order (August 24, 2026)
LJM Tower (Hamilton condo)ONFebruary 10, 2026Direct filingSale of one condo unit approved (June 19, 2026)
Sweet Berry FarmsNLFebruary 17, 2026Answer to a receivership applicationStay expired; lender's private receiver (May 19, 2026)

The full table, all 42 proceedings with each company's liabilities, its interim financing and its directors' charge, every figure cited to the filing it came from, is for subscribers.

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See all plans⁠

Cases in this guide

AMCO Farms Inc. and AMCO Produce Inc.CCAA · OntarioActiveClaire’s Stores Canada Corp.CCAA · OntarioActiveDarwynn Ltd.CCAA · OntarioClosedIovate Health SciencesCCAA · OntarioActiveJust for Laughs GroupCCAA · QuebecActiveUpper Canada Growers Ltd. and UCG Land Inc.NOI · OntarioActiveWhyte’s Foods Inc. (Proposal)NOI · OntarioClosed

Analysis is editorial; every factual claim cites the record. The record itself never editorializes.

Facts and summaries are extracted automatically from the court filings linked on each page; the filings remain the authoritative record. Suggested corrections are reviewed against the source filings.