Light Speed Logistics: the customers who will not pay twice

Light Speed Logistics Inc. hauled refrigerated perishable food from a yard at 122 Carmek Boulevard in Rocky View County, Alberta, to some forty-eight American states and across Canada, per the Fifth Report of MNP Ltd., July 21, 2026, para. 15. At any given time, CIBC's affiant deposed, its drivers, tractors and refrigerated trailers were "located all over Canada and the United States," per the Affidavit of Supriya Sarin (CIBC), Dec. 1, 2025, para. 15; on the day its receiver was appointed it had 304 employees, per the Receiver's Fourth Report (Grant Thornton), Sept. 14, 2026, para. 12. On November 20, 2025, according to the affidavit Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce filed to appoint a receiver, two of the company's three directors told the bank that receivables in its January 31, 2025 audited statements were overstated by at least $16,000,000, that its September 30 borrowing base certificate was overstated too, and that CIBC had over-advanced at least $9,000,000 as a result. Asked how, they said misrepresentations had been made in the company's financial reporting over the past five years. The account they gave was that the controller had left in or about January 2025 and that payments received and made were not applied after that, per the Affidavit of Supriya Sarin (CIBC), Dec. 1, 2025, paras. 7–8. The bank wrote the same day that it had lost all confidence in management, and on November 24 demanded repayment and gave notice under s. 244 of the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act, per the Affidavit of Supriya Sarin, Dec. 1, 2025, paras. 47–48.

Nine months on, the company has been sold for parts under three court files, assigned into bankruptcy, and its biggest customers are holding its receivables against claims from truckers who say Light Speed hired them and never paid. Grant Thornton Limited, CIBC's receiver, filed its fourth report on September 14 and a brief of law on September 16 for an application returnable September 23 before Justice L.K. Harris, per the Application of Grant Thornton Limited, Sept. 14, 2026, p. 1.

Three lenders, three receivers

Three lenders went to court within four days. On December 5, 2025 the court appointed Grant Thornton on CIBC's application over the receivables, bank accounts and 92 specific trailers. On December 8 it appointed Ernst & Young Inc. on National Bank of Canada's application as limited receiver of the equipment NBC had financed, and MNP Ltd. on Business Development Bank of Canada's application over the BDC-financed equipment and everything owned by Light Speed Holdings Inc., the related company that owned the Carmek Boulevard premises, per the Receiver's Fourth Report, Sept. 14, 2026, paras. 1–2. In January, Grant Thornton's mandate was widened to 104 tractors the company's records listed as paid out and to anything else not claimed by another receivership or by a lender ranking ahead of CIBC, and its charge was raised from $500,000 to $750,000 (para. 3).

CIBC's affiant put the operating loan alone at $17,419,349 on November 24, 2025, within facilities that also included a capex line, a BDC term facility and an Export Development Canada guarantee facility, per the Affidavit of Supriya Sarin, Dec. 1, 2025, para. 23; Grant Thornton now puts CIBC's debt at about $28.7 million at the receivership date, per the Receiver's Fourth Report, Sept. 14, 2026, para. 40(c). NBC was owed US$9,046,178.39, or $12,517,197, against roughly 275 trailers, per the Sixth Report of Ernst & Young Inc., July 27, 2026, paras. 3, 81. Light Speed Holdings owed BDC about $15.5 million, secured by first mortgages of $10,000,000 and $3,310,240 on the real property, and it had guaranteed Light Speed's debt to CIBC with a $14,000,000 collateral mortgage ranking second, per the Fifth Report of MNP Ltd., July 21, 2026, paras. 21–23.

What the equipment and the yard fetched

Each receiver has spent months finding rolling stock. EY had secured 223 of NBC's trailers by July 15. An auction by McDougall Auctioneers Ltd. closed on May 14 and paid $3,223,943, and EY has entered into 21 independent sales, 18 of them closed, whose terms are in sealed confidential supplements. One trailer was driven out of a storage yard on March 23 by an individual driving a National Freight Ltd. unit, without the receiver's knowledge, and EY's counsel has demanded its value from the yard operator under their storage agreement, per the Sixth Report of Ernst & Young Inc., July 27, 2026, paras. 13, 15, 20–25, 30. After a first payment of $3,100,000 on April 20, which also retired the receiver's borrowings, Justice G.S. Dunlop on August 6 approved a second NBC distribution of up to $2,175,000, sealed the supplement, and fixed lien claims of five repairers and storers against named trailers, per the Order (Approving Receiver's Fees and Activities, Interim Distribution), Aug. 6, 2026, paras. 6–11. Six other claimants were declared to have no valid lien, and Carrier Systems Group Inc. was given until August 13 to put all its evidence in by affidavit. A Calgary repair shop, New Millenium Tire Centre Alberta Ltd., is on neither list. Its director swore the day before the hearing that its lien registrations showed the three trailers as released only because he had expected to release them, and that the shop kept them until it handed them to the receiver, per the Affidavit of the director of New Millenium, Aug. 5, 2026, paras. 12, 15–18.

MNP's side of the file produced the largest single number. Of 151 BDC trailers, 97 have been located and 54 are missing or stolen, 15 of them from the Carmek Boulevard yard itself, and auction proceeds through Ritchie Bros. had reached $2,847,735 by July 17. The real property sold to SFI Properties Canada Inc. for $18,000,000, closing June 29 with $18,087,108 in net proceeds, per the Fifth Report of MNP Ltd., July 21, 2026, paras. 32, 35, 46. On July 27 Justice Armstrong authorized $10,197,985 plus per diem interest to BDC on its mortgages, a further $1,000,000 to BDC from equipment proceeds, and $6,706,591, less that per diem, to CIBC as the second mortgagee under Light Speed Holdings' guarantee, per the Order (Distributions), July 27, 2026, paras. 2–4. BDC's payout statement had put its debt at $13,954,808 on July 23, $9,954,149 of it on the real property loans; MNP allocated $237,000 of its $300,000 of borrowings to the real property, on its estimate that about 79% of its administration costs went there, per the First Supplement to the Fifth Report of MNP Ltd., July 24, 2026, paras. 5–6.

Receivables held against someone else's truckers

Grant Thornton's estate is chiefly receivables, and they are not coming in. Its interim statement records $6,843,597 of receipts from December 5 to September 14: $3,811,705 from rolling stock, $2,634,293 of receivables and $347,695 of cash at bank. After $902,011 paid to CIBC under the first interim distribution approved on April 2, it leaves $4,360,868 in hand, $110,038 of it still in the company's CIBC accounts, per the Receiver's Fourth Report, Sept. 14, 2026, App. "3". Of the 92 CIBC trailers, 85 have been found; seven have dead GPS units. Of the 104 paid-out tractors, 49 have been found, and a manufacturer's tracking data released under an April order "did not lead to any additional recoveries," per the Receiver's Fourth Report, Sept. 14, 2026, paras. 27–28.

Seven customers account for about $8.5 million, roughly 69% of the receivables once accounts believed inflated in the overstatement are set aside: McCain for $2,921,175, Cargill and Excel together for $2,488,392, JBS for $1,640,111, then Canpar, FedEx and Sobeys. They received demand letters in December and again from counsel on March 11, per the Receiver's Fourth Report, Sept. 14, 2026, paras. 16–17. The application grows out of their replies, as the receiver summarizes them. McCain has agreed that it holds $1,244,395.12 and US$177,580.42 due to the receiver and has paid none of it "over concerns of having to pay Carrier Claims" — claims by third-party carriers Light Speed subcontracted to make its deliveries, which say they went unpaid. JBS says eight loads just before the receivership were not delivered or were delivered late and rejected, and claims set-offs of $363,044.86 and US$234,087.65. FedEx says a trailer carrying its load was abandoned and later stolen after a bailiff for one of the secured lenders seized the tractor pulling it, and puts its loss above what it owes. Sobeys has advised of carrier claims exceeding its whole balance; Cargill and Excel say a set-off review is under way; Canpar has raised a set-off for money owed to its parent that the receiver calls unsubstantiated, per the Receiver's Fourth Report, Sept. 14, 2026, para. 18. The carrier claims the customers report run to $80,000 and US$170,000 from 13 carriers for McCain, $251,450 from one for JBS and $73,000 and US$390,000 from four for Sobeys, and the customers want indemnities before they pay (para. 19).

Below the seven, about $1.25 million and US$520,000 owed by some 80 smaller customers went in May to a collection agency, MetCredit, on a 22.5% contingency; by September 1 it had collected $115,235 and US$3,900. Other customers, the receiver says, have challenged the legitimacy of Light Speed's invoices and say they provided services to Light Speed and are its creditors, per the Receiver's Fourth Report, Sept. 14, 2026, paras. 23–25.

What Grant Thornton asks for, and on what footing

The application asks for two directions to customers served with the order. Those that have received carrier claims must deliver to the receiver the bills of lading, invoices, proofs of delivery and other papers the carriers sent them; those claiming a set-off apart from carrier claims must say so. The deadline in both cases is October 9, 2026 or 14 days after service, whichever is later, per the Brief of Law of the Applicant, Sept. 16, 2026, para. 20. The papers are for a later step: an application set for November 12 to approve a process for the receiver to adjudicate the carrier claims, address customers' liability to carriers, including claims originating in the United States that customers say "may not be bound by Canadian laws," and pay valid claims "in accordance with the priority they might have to the outstanding AR," per the Brief of Law of the Applicant, Sept. 16, 2026, paras. 12–13.

The brief rests the directions on s. 249 of the BIA and the court's power under s. 243(1)(c), citing Peace River Hydro Partners v Petrowest Corp., 2022 SCC 41, and Canadian Western Bank v 702348 Alberta Ltd., 2009 ABQB 271, for the limit that a bankruptcy court "must be careful not to overreach its jurisdiction" when it deals with third parties' rights. Whether a carrier can collect from a customer, it says, "directly impacts the Receiver's ability to recover outstanding AR," and turns on the Bills of Lading Act, provincial legislation, where a load began and ended, the contracts, who was invoiced and what the parties expected about payment, per the Brief of Law of the Applicant, Sept. 16, 2026, paras. 22–27. It also points to the receivership order's own paragraph 5, which already requires anyone with notice to hand over records relating to the company's affairs (para. 29).

The second request is for a second interim distribution: $578,191.87 to Service Canada on its subrogated s. 81.4 claim for wages advanced to employees, $25,352.10 and $989.94 to two lien claimants admitted in the receiver's lien claims process, and the balance, about $2.66 million, to CIBC, holding back $608,796 for the Canada Revenue Agency's claim for unremitted source deductions, $16,893 for a further expected Service Canada claim, $79,574 for disputed liens, $31,545 from the sale of a subsidiary's assets and $250,000 to fund the administration, per the Receiver's Fourth Report, Sept. 14, 2026, para. 40. The receiver says its counsel has opined CIBC's security valid and enforceable, and that it knows of no other priority claim; a $206,534 claim by the Workers' Compensation Board has been reviewed and found subordinate (paras. 41–42). How the source deductions and $80,633 of the receiver's wage-program fees should be shared among the three estates is still being worked out: the receivers and the main secured creditors met on September 1, agreed to exchange their recoveries and debts as a basis, and Grant Thornton expects to bring the method to court at the next application (paras. 48–50). It also seeks approval of fees of $254,822 for itself from February 27 to July 31, the $80,633 of wage-program fees, and $118,170 for MLT Aikins, before taxes (para. 53).

The bankruptcy behind the receivership

Grant Thornton assigned Light Speed into bankruptcy on April 30 under a power the court gave it on April 2, and a CIBC representative is the sole inspector. The report states the purpose plainly: to let the trustee "further investigate the AR Overstatement" with the BIA's powers, and to challenge antecedent transactions where that helps the estates. Five people have been examined, two of them adjourned for more questioning, and at least four more are to follow; the list includes the directors, former employees, the company's auditors and the principals of entities whose receivables were understood to have been inflated. The receivership estate is funding the bankruptcy until the trustee recovers something, per the Receiver's Fourth Report, Sept. 14, 2026, paras. 43–46. The assignment also turns CRA's GST claim into an unsecured one (para. 47). Separately, on September 4 the receiver's counsel demanded $218,958 from Ocean Trailer, the buyer in an October 8, 2025 sale-and-leaseback of 48 trailers, for set-offs taken against the price that the receiver says were a fraudulent preference or a transfer at undervalue under the BIA, per the Receiver's Fourth Report, Sept. 14, 2026, paras. 31–32. The position is the receiver's, stated in a demand letter.

The application is returnable at 10:30 a.m. on September 23 by WebEx, per the Application of Grant Thornton Limited, Sept. 14, 2026, p. 1.