Green Impact Partners: the debtors ask to make the bank's CCAA their own

On August 13, 2026, Ernst & Young Inc., the Monitor, paid National Bank of Canada $25,131,288.69 from the net proceeds of the Firefall sale "as full repayment of the NBC Indebtedness," per the Fourth Report of the Monitor, Oct. 16, 2026, para. 16. The bank had started the case: it obtained the initial order over eight Green Impact companies on February 4, and the enhanced powers the Monitor holds were, in the Monitor's words, "implemented as part of NBC's application seeking the Initial Order and ARIO," per the Fourth Report of the Monitor, Oct. 16, 2026, paras. 1, 8, 55. In the companies' notice of application, filed October 16, NBC is the creditor that "commenced these CCAA proceedings" and "is no longer a stakeholder with respect to the GIP Group," per the Notice of Application (SARIO, Claims Process, SISP Termination and Stay Extension), Oct. 16, 2026, para. 7.

The notice calls the seven companies that remain "the Applicants," the word the February 23 order used for the bank, per the Notice of Application, Oct. 16, 2026, para. 1 and the Amended and Restated Initial Order, Feb. 23, 2026, preamble. Returnable October 21 before Justice Feasby, it asks for a second amended and restated initial order curtailing the Monitor's enhanced powers, an order terminating the sale and investment solicitation process, a claims process with a bar date of December 18, 2026, and an extension of the stay from October 30, 2026 to January 29, 2027, per the Notice of Application, Oct. 16, 2026, paras. 1, 12, 20–21. The Monitor recommends that the court approve all four, per the Fourth Report of the Monitor, Oct. 16, 2026, para. 69. When this case was last reported here, on July 23, the Firefall sale had just been approved; the Monitor's report of July 14 said it would review the remaining assets with the companies and consider "whether there exists a path for the Debtors to develop a plan of arrangement" or some further liquidation or sale, per the Third Report of the Monitor, July 14, 2026, para. 54.

What the sale left behind

On August 6, 2026, the Monitor issued its certificate on the sale, and Green Impact Operating Corp., whose shares Firefall bought, ceased to be a debtor in the proceedings. GIOC had held and operated several water, solids and hydrocarbon treatment facilities in Alberta and Saskatchewan. With it went, in the Monitor's words, "substantially all of the Debtors' operating and physical assets," and the remaining assets "consist primarily of certain residual shareholdings," per the Fourth Report of the Monitor, Oct. 16, 2026, paras. 15, 23, 51.

The companies have interests in three renewable natural gas projects, in Alberta, Colorado and Iowa, "all of which are at various development and operational stages," and shares in other businesses and projects which "continue to be investigated and reviewed by the Monitor," per the Fourth Report of the Monitor, Oct. 16, 2026, para. 24.

The forecast to January 29, 2027, which management prepared in consultation with the Monitor, notes that the companies "no longer have operating revenue following the closing of the Transaction" and assumes that operating costs, professional fees and the costs of the claims process will be paid from funds the Monitor would remit to Green Impact Partners Inc. under the new order, per the Fourth Report of the Monitor, Oct. 16, 2026, paras. 37–38. The companies say they remain indebted to other creditors "in an amount that exceeds $5,000,000," and so are "still companies to which the CCAA applies," per the Notice of Application, Oct. 16, 2026, para. 8.

The powers the bank asked for

The order the companies want amended and restated is the one National Bank obtained on February 23. Under its paragraph 30, EY may "conduct, supervise and direct the marketing, sale, conveyance, transfer, assignment or disposal of any Property," cause the companies to engage, retain or terminate officers, employees and advisers, and "direct or cause the Debtors to administer the Property and the Business," and where it takes such steps it is "exclusively authorized and empowered to do so, to the exclusion of all other Persons, including the Debtors and their current and former employees, directors and officers," per the Amended and Restated Initial Order, Feb. 23, 2026, para. 30. The same order directs the Monitor, together with the companies, to report to the bank at such intervals as the bank deems appropriate, requires the companies' cash-flow reporting, reviewed with the Monitor, to go to the bank and its counsel at least weekly unless the bank agrees otherwise, and directs the Monitor to advise on any plan "in consultation with the Applicant," per the Amended and Restated Initial Order, Feb. 23, 2026, para. 29. The companies' brief calls several of the order's provisions "not typical in an initial order," sought by the bank as applicant, per the Bench Brief (SARIO, SISP Termination, Claims Process & Stay Extension), Oct. 19, 2026, para. 11.

The Monitor notes that the powers were granted "in the circumstances described in the Pre-Filing Report," per the Fourth Report of the Monitor, Oct. 16, 2026, para. 57. That report, dated February 4, described a lender that, as part of the terms of a seventh amending agreement, had asked for EY's scope of services to be enhanced, "providing more oversight on the efforts being made by the Companies to close on the sale of the water assets and/or obtain alternative financing," and that, while management continued to work on further transactions, none having closed by the report's date, was concerned "that Management will not be able to pay out the Indebtedness," per the Pre-Filing Report of the Proposed Monitor, Feb. 4, 2026, paras. 28, 33.

With the bank paid, the companies' position is that the enhanced powers "and the provisions of the ARIO relating to NBC as the applicant, including its consultation, information and reporting rights, are no longer required," per the Notice of Application, Oct. 16, 2026, para. 9. The Monitor agrees that the powers "are no longer necessary," that the focus is now the claims process and the companies' restructuring options, and that "it is appropriate for the Monitor's role to return to that of a traditional court-appointed monitor," per the Fourth Report of the Monitor, Oct. 16, 2026, para. 56. The replacement order, the companies' brief says, "closely mirrors the Template Initial Order used in Alberta," per the Bench Brief, Oct. 19, 2026, para. 13.

On the Monitor's account, "Management will resume control of the Debtors' business and property, subject to the Monitor's oversight under the CCAA and the SARIO," once the order is granted, and the Monitor will go on watching receipts and disbursements and report to the court on any material adverse change, any proposed transaction outside the ordinary course of business and any payment to a related party, per the Fourth Report of the Monitor, Oct. 16, 2026, para. 57. The new order would preserve the retention plan's charge, leave untouched what was done under the earlier orders, keep the Monitor's protections for the period in which it exercised the enhanced powers, and require the Monitor's consent for payments to related parties and for asset dispositions, per the Fourth Report of the Monitor, Oct. 16, 2026, para. 58.