Jay's Metal: the inventory count is in a notebook nobody can find

The galvanized coils were still in the yard. When BDO Canada Limited toured the Calgary and Edmonton premises of four related metal fabricators on the afternoon of August 20, 2026, hours after Justice G.S. Dunlop appointed it receiver, it observed significant quantities of raw material, and finished customer orders sitting on the floor waiting to be picked up — some fully prepaid, some part-paid, some not paid at all. What it could not find was any document saying which was which, per the First Report of the Receiver, Sept. 2, 2026, paras. 17, 52–53. Two weeks later the receiver went back to court to ask that the companies' management be ordered to hand over the records, and that two directors pay the costs of the asking out of their own pockets.

Royal Bank of Canada applied on August 10, 2026 on the affidavit of Marlene Starenky. The receivership order pronounced ten days later appointed BDO over Jay's Metal Products Ltd., Jay's Metal Structural Ltd., Jay's Metal Steel Framing Ltd. and Jay's Metal Edmonton Ltd., under s. 243(1) of the BIA together with s. 13(2) of Alberta's Judicature Act and s. 65(7) of the Personal Property Security Act. Jagjit Bajwa and Rajinder Singh were named as respondents alongside the four companies. The order granted a Receiver's Charge of up to $200,000 and a Receiver's Borrowings Charge of up to $400,000, per the Receivership Order, Aug. 20, 2026, caption and paras. 2, 18, 21. RBC's claim, as set out in the Starenky affidavit and recited by the receiver, is approximately $4,893,619, secured by a registration against all present and after-acquired personal property made on October 6, 2020, per the First Report of the Receiver, Sept. 2, 2026, para. 25. Behind the bank sit a long column of equipment lessors registered at the Alberta Personal Property Registry — the Business Development Bank of Canada against all four companies, and, depending on the entity, Stride Capital, Bennington, Bodkin, Ford Credit, ATB Financial, Sequoia, Coast Capital, Essex Lease, Arundel Capital and others, per the First Report of the Receiver, Sept. 2, 2026, para. 26.

The business had, on management's account, already stopped. Management told the receiver the companies began winding down about a month before the receivership, apart from some immaterial purchases, and terminated employees gradually over roughly thirty days, the last of them in the days immediately before the order, per the First Report of the Receiver, Sept. 2, 2026, para. 12.

What the books say, and what they are worth

The unaudited internal statements at June 30, 2026 show accounts receivable of $5,618,865 — $1,572,841 at Products, $3,990,242 at Structural, $55,782 at Steel Framing and nothing at Edmonton, per the First Report of the Receiver, Sept. 2, 2026, para. 14. The receiver reports that the number does not mean what it appears to mean: management explained that a receivable was booked the moment an order came in, before any work was done on it, so the balance is expected to be overstated, per the First Report of the Receiver, Sept. 2, 2026, para. 15. A receivable subledger later produced by management, of approximately $961,030, has the same defect — it lists every order received without distinguishing the ones that were completed, per the First Report of the Receiver, Sept. 2, 2026, para. 54 and the Application for an Order Compelling Compliance, Sept. 2, 2026, para. 6. Asked for the ordinary supporting documents — a purchase order, an invoice, an acknowledgement of receipt — management answered that no such package exists. The companies had historically collected almost everything they billed, it said, because of their relationships with their customers, per the First Report of the Receiver, Sept. 2, 2026, para. 55.

There is no inventory listing at all. The last physical count was about three months before the receivership, and the receiver was told the record of it "is likely written in Mr. Bajwa's notebook, the whereabouts of this notebook is currently unknown," per the First Report of the Receiver, Sept. 2, 2026, para. 18. On equipment, management advised that certain machinery had been sold in the period before the order — a statement the receiver says was corroborated by a landlord's observation that equipment appeared to be missing — but no listing of current equipment and no particulars of any disposition had been produced, per the First Report of the Receiver, Sept. 2, 2026, para. 19.

At the first attendance the receiver noticed something else missing. It records "the absence of any computers or electronic records which would appear unusual for a company of this size," and that Mr. Bajwa explained it was normal practice for employees to bring their own personal computers to work each day — while the receiver notes that computer hardware and software appear on the companies' financial statements, per the First Report of the Receiver, Sept. 2, 2026, para. 45. The books, the receiver was told, were with Mr. Bajwa's niece, who acted as the bookkeeper. Asked for her name and contact information, he said he wanted to speak with her first, and asked whether she would consent to its release. The receiver replied that if he was unwilling or unable to provide it, the obligation to obtain and produce the records stayed with him, per the First Report of the Receiver, Sept. 2, 2026, paras. 43–44. Also at that first attendance, the report says, Mr. Bajwa "enquired as to what compensation would be offered to solicit his continued support," per the First Report of the Receiver, Sept. 2, 2026, para. 46.

Two addresses that were not on the list

The receiver learned of the first of them by accident. On August 27 a creditor called about a possible thirty-day goods claim, and the invoices it sent through carried a delivery address at 6039 46 Street SE — a location management had not disclosed. The shipping paperwork showed goods arriving there between about July 23 and August 20, 2026, which the receiver calls notable against management's account of a wind-down a month earlier; it says it confirmed that understanding with management and invited a correction, and received none, per the First Report of the Receiver, Sept. 2, 2026, paras. 38–39.

Asked directly whether there were other locations, Mr. Bajwa identified two — the 46 Street premises and another at 6771 84 Street SE — and said the companies had been locked out of both for non-payment of rent. The receiver reached the 46 Street landlord to arrange access, and reports that the landlord said the opposite: rent was current to the end of August and there had been no lockout. The landlord produced a lease made as of April 23, 2026, commencing July 1, 2026, for a five-year term with a deposit of approximately $108,972 — signed, in other words, while the wind-down was said to be under way. The 84 Street landlord had not been reached by the date of the report; when the receiver attended there it found no sign of occupation and a substantially empty building behind a secured yard, per the First Report of the Receiver, Sept. 2, 2026, paras. 40–42.