FIELDS: $16,700 every Tuesday for 250 weeks

The FIELDS stores sell apparel, groceries and household goods in rural communities across Western Canada, fifty-two of them, with a distribution warehouse and head office in Delta, B.C. The business runs on cash and card sales, extending credit from time to time to government agencies, social service organizations and First Nations communities, and it employs about 360 people full- and part-time, per MNP Ltd.'s Trustee's Report to Creditors, June 12, 2026, pp. 1, 3. The chain dates from 1948, and FHC Enterprises Ltd. was incorporated in March 2012 to buy its assets, per the Trustee's Report to Creditors, June 12, 2026, p. 1; a May 1, 2012 release from FHC Holdings Ltd. announced the purchase of 57 FIELDS stores in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and the Northwest Territories from Hudson's Bay Company.

On June 18, 2025, MNP issued its certificate of full performance of FHC's first proposal, made to creditors in May 2020, and a court order of April 21, 2026 discharged MNP from that mandate. Seventeen days later, on May 8, 2026, FHC filed a notice of intention to make a proposal under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act, and MNP consented to act as trustee again, per the Trustee's Report to Creditors, June 12, 2026, pp. 1–2. The proposal it lodged on June 4 promises the trustee $4,175,000 in 250 weekly payments of $16,700, each due on a Tuesday, beginning the first Tuesday after court approval, a schedule that runs a little under five years, per the Proposal dated for reference June 4, 2026, Sch. "A" to the Order Approving Proposal, July 27, 2026, art. 3.3.1. A Registrar in Bankruptcy approved it on July 27, 2026.

A bank deadline and a tax registration

The company's account of why it needed protection is short, and the trustee sets it out in both of its reports. Management reported that FHC and Royal Bank of Canada had entered into a forbearance agreement that, among other things, required the company to repay its revolving credit line in full by June 30, 2026, and that the Ministry of Finance of British Columbia had given notice of provincial sales tax arrears of approximately $1,000,000 and registered a security interest against the company. "Accordingly, the Company required additional liquidity to fund its working capital needs," per the Trustee's Report to Creditors, June 12, 2026, p. 1 and the Report of Trustee on Proposal, June 30, 2026, para. 10. The Province's financing statement went into the Personal Property Registry on April 9, 2026, per the Trustee's Report to Creditors, June 12, 2026, p. 6. On the statement of affairs, the two boxes ticked were negative market conditions and lack of working capital or funding, per the Statement of Affairs (Form 78), Creditor's Package, June 8, 2026, p. 31.

RBC has lent to the company under a loan agreement dated April 30, 2012 and many amended and restated versions since, and its debt is unaffected by the proposal. The statement of affairs carried RBC at $2,000,000; the company expected to owe it about $350,000 by the time of the vote, a figure the trustee said would depend on actual sales and profitability, per the Trustee's Report to Creditors, June 12, 2026, pp. 5–6 and the claims register in the Report of Trustee on Proposal, June 30, 2026, Ex. "I", p. 159. After the filing, 1007070 B.C. Ltd., related to FHC by common control, advanced $200,000 on a secured basis "to allow for inventory purchases while the Company aggressively pays down the indebtedness owing to RBC," the trustee wrote. The statement of affairs listed 1007070 at $814,000, and management expected further advances to bring its balance to about $1,700,000 by the vote, per the Trustee's Report to Creditors, June 12, 2026, pp. 3, 6 and the claims register in the Report of Trustee on Proposal, June 30, 2026, Ex. "I", p. 159.

Much of the other secured debt sits on real estate. FHC owns twelve properties, seven of them mortgaged: to CIBC in Chetwynd, Affinity Credit Union in Meadow Lake and Humboldt, BDC in Spirit River, Envision Financial in Westlock and Boyle, and BMO in Merritt, for $2,415,661 in all. A line of credit from 167986 Canada Inc., dated February 19, 2026 and secured against the equity in that portfolio, stood at about $800,000, per the Trustee's Report to Creditors, June 12, 2026, pp. 4, 6, 10.

The first time, in 2020

When FHC first filed, on March 6, 2020, it ran 63 FIELDS stores and one McFrugals store in the four western provinces and the Northwest Territories, with about 400 employees. Its sole director, Jason W. McDougall, attributed the decline in sales at a number of locations to "economic decline or disruption in the communities served by those locations, such as mill closures or the ongoing difficulties in Alberta's oil and gas industries," and said new financing to cover the shortfall had "collapsed at the last minute" earlier that year, with COVID-19 adding uncertainty, per the Affidavit #1 of Jason W. McDougall, Apr. 1, 2020, paras. 3–4, 6–9. RBC was then owed approximately $8,941,000. 1007070 B.C. Ltd. was a secured creditor in that proceeding too, advancing funds under a revolving credit facility and owed about $1,768,919.61, per the Affidavit #1 of Jason W. McDougall, Apr. 1, 2020, paras. 18, 21.

On April 6, 2020, Madam Justice Fitzpatrick extended the company's time to file a proposal to May 21, 2020, on hearing Carol M. Cash of Gehlen Dabbs for FHC and William E.J. Skelly of MLT Aikins for RBC, per the Order of Madam Justice Fitzpatrick, Apr. 6, 2020, para. 1. The same day, on the bank's application, she declared under s. 69.4 of the BIA that the stay no longer operated in respect of RBC, per the Order Made After Application, Apr. 6, 2020, para. 2. Under a carve-out agreement the company had agreed not to object. RBC told the court it had no present intention to appoint a receiver but wanted to be able to act quickly "if things change in this very uncertain time," per the Notice of Motion of Royal Bank of Canada, Apr. 3, 2020, Part 2, paras. 23, 27–28. The proposal filed that May was accepted by creditors, approved by the court and performed to the end, per the Trustee's Report to Creditors, June 12, 2026, p. 1.

Where the $4,175,000 goes

Secured creditors stay outside the second proposal. RBC, 1007070 B.C. Ltd. and 167986 Canada Inc. are named among those to be paid "in accordance with the present arrangements existing between the Company and respective Secured Creditors"; they do not vote as a class and are not stayed by the proposal, per the Proposal, Sch. "A" to the Order Approving Proposal, July 27, 2026, art. 3.2 and the Trustee's Report to Creditors, June 12, 2026, p. 2. The one secured claim inside it is the Province's. Unpaid PST, where a valid registration exists and a secured proof of claim is accepted, is paid from the fund in priority to general creditors, and the trustee's report describes two voting classes, statutory secured creditors and general creditors, per the Trustee's Report to Creditors, June 12, 2026, pp. 2, 7.