Port Whitby: the charge that went ahead of the bank

Port Whitby Village Inc. was incorporated in Ontario in 1999 and sold Mazdas until 2016, when it rebranded and became a Chrysler dealership. It traded as Richmond Hill Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram from 10731 Yonge Street, subleasing the premises from a related company, Crossview Developments Inc., which held the head lease to 2029 at combined rent of about $51,000 a month, per the Pre-Filing Report of the Proposed Receiver, Dec. 1, 2025, paras. 3, 12, 15–16.

The registration went first

The Ontario Motor Vehicle Industry Council inspected, then issued a notice of temporary suspension on September 19, 2025 against the company and Joseph Sorbara, who ran the business day to day, together with a notice of proposal to revoke registration "in order to protect the public interest," per the Pre-Filing Report of the Proposed Receiver, Dec. 1, 2025, para. 21. A dealership that cannot sell cars has a short remaining life. The appeal to the Licence Appeal Tribunal was dismissed on April 24, 2026 and the final notice of revocation followed three days later, per the Second Report of the Receiver, Aug. 24, 2026, paras. 41–42.

Port Whitby and Crossview had each filed a notice of intention to make a proposal on July 30, 2025. Extensions ran out on November 14 and both were deemed bankrupt the next day. Eighteen employees had been laid off over September and October; none remained. On December 3, 2025 Justice Dietrich appointed Bricks Damiani Inc. receiver of Port Whitby on the application of The Toronto-Dominion Bank, per the Receivership Order, Dec. 3, 2025, para. 2.

The proposal trustee's own email to the principals a week earlier is the plainest thing in the file: "There are no liquid assets or cash available to the Trustee to conduct a continuation of the Company's previous going concern sale e[ff]orts which failed to culminate in a closed sale, as you know," per the Pre-Filing Report of the Proposed Receiver, Dec. 1, 2025, Appendix "A". What was left was "only 27 new and 11 used cars on a mostly empty parking lot."

Two sales, one day

The receiver ran a short canvass and came back on December 29 with two transactions and a bill of sale, all approved by Justice Dietrich the same day.

The first was a repurchase. Under the dealership agreement the manufacturer takes back qualifying new inventory, and FCA Canada Inc. agreed to buy 23 of the vehicles — the receiver having found that only 23 of the 27 the debtor claimed were eligible, per the Approval and Vesting Order (Stellantis Agreement), Dec. 29, 2025. It closed on January 13, 2026 for gross proceeds of $1,409,879 before HST.

The second was an unreserved online auction. Danbury Global Ltd. took the remaining fifteen vehicles — eleven used units and the four new ones the manufacturer would not take — to a secured compound in Hamilton under a net minimum guarantee, with a 13% buyer's premium, per the Approval and Vesting Order (Auction Agreement), Dec. 29, 2025. The auction ran on February 10, 2026, proceeds exceeded the guarantee, and Danbury remitted the excess: $374,750 gross.

A separate bill of sale, approved by the ancillary order rather than a vesting order, took the parts inventory and the fixed equipment — lifts, hoists, office furniture. One alignment machine was leased and had to be bought out of the lease for $13,179 including HST. Net to the estate: $62,624, per the Ancillary Order, Dec. 29, 2025, para. 4 and the Second Report of the Receiver, Aug. 24, 2026, para. 29.

Justice Dietrich's endorsement records that nobody opposed any of it, and that on the sealed comparison "the average price per vehicle under the Transaction is the highest of the various offers received," per the Endorsement of Dietrich J., Dec. 29, 2025, paras. 5, 17. The premises were vacated by January 15, 2026, rent paid in full to that date and the lease disclaimed.

Where the money went

The receiver's statement of receipts and disbursements for December 3, 2025 to August 18, 2026 totals $2,180,840 in and $693,349 out, leaving $1,487,491, per the Second Report of the Receiver, Aug. 24, 2026, Appendix "K".