Summit Auto Group: the last dealership finds a buyer

Three of Summit Auto Group's dealerships stood on Cranbrook Street North in Cranbrook, B.C.: Cranbrook Mitsubishi at 2032, Sun Valley Nissan at 2024 and Arrow Volkswagen at 2034. Bank of Montreal took the group on in December 2020 with the Mitsubishi and Volkswagen stores, then financed its purchase of Sun Valley Nissan in March 2021, which, BMO's affiant deposed, "resulted in three dealerships all located within the same auto mall in Cranbrook, BC." Vermilion Chrysler followed in 2021, Castle Ford in Pincher Creek and Squamish Chrysler in 2023, per the Affidavit of John Gil, Aug. 15, 2025, paras. 29, 84.

Eleven months into the CCAA proceeding BMO started on August 22, 2025, the three Cranbrook stores have gone three ways. Arrow VW was sold to K5 IG Holdings Inc. in a sale that closed on March 18, 2026. Cranbrook Mitsubishi's buyer withdrew on March 24 and the monitor wound the store down, per the Seventh Report of the Monitor, May 11, 2026, paras. 34–38, 55 and the Eighth Report of the Monitor, July 15, 2026, paras. 6, 40. On July 23, Justice R. W. Armstrong of the Court of King's Bench of Alberta approved the sale of Sun Valley Nissan, with the land it operates on, to Dawson Automotive Motor Holdings Ltd., per the Order (Approval and Vesting Sun Valley Nissan), July 23, 2026, paras. 3–5. The monitor, BDO Canada Limited, had told the court that once that sale is complete "there will be no further dealership operations to sell, which will end the SISP," per the Eighth Report, para. 37.

What BMO said it found

The application was the bank's. John Gil, a director in BMO's special accounts management unit, swore that as of August 12, 2025 the group owed BMO more than $58 million. The default he put first was vehicles "sold in violation": units financed on BMO's floor-plan lines and sold without the proceeds going back to the bank, about $9.4 million of them by BMO's August 13 audits, some $2.9 million of that after the group signed forbearance agreements that spring. Full Circle Automotive Solutions Inc., the chief restructuring officer retained after BMO invoked its forbearance rights, told the bank that the dealerships other than Squamish Chrysler had also sold floor-plan vehicles to wholesalers at an aggregate loss of about $1.41 million between January 1 and August 14, 2025. The group's counsel had answered BMO's first default letter that the sold-in-violation vehicles were minimal and being repaid; BMO says Full Circle confirmed the bank's figures. "BMO has lost faith in the Summit Auto Group and its management to run their operations without causing significant additional exposure to BMO," Mr. Gil deposed, per the Gil Affidavit, paras. 14–19, 101–103, 112.

BDO came to the mandate knowing the group: the companies themselves engaged it on December 27, 2024, and BMO from February 12, 2025. As proposed monitor it reported that the dealerships had lost money since 2023 and employed about 103 people, and that on the sales agent's and CRO's estimates their sale would not repay BMO, which it called the "fulcrum creditor," per the Pre-Filing Report, paras. 10, 20, 28, 69. BMO preferred a CCAA to a receivership partly for licensing reasons: a receiver would have had to apply for provincial dealer licences, while a monitor with enhanced powers could keep selling under the dealerships' own, per the Gil Affidavit, paras. 118–119. Justice M. A. Marion's initial order gave BDO those powers and put Full Circle in as CRO; by August 27 the administration charge stood at $750,000 and the monitor's borrowing limit at $3.5 million, per the Initial Order, Aug. 22, 2025, p. 2, paras. 25, 34 and the Eighth Report, paras. 2, 4–5. On September 19 the court added investigative powers, including to compel examinations under oath, which the monitor sought after the CRO reported more than $1 million in cumulative losses on wholesale vehicle sales and "the widespread use of third-party finance 'pod' agreements across Dealerships," per the Second Report of the Monitor, Sept. 10, 2025, paras. 38–39, 42.

Six bids, two sales

The court-approved sale process drew six bids by its October 24, 2025 deadline. Two qualified, one for Arrow VW and one for Castle Ford; the rest carried significant conditions, including financing, or came from buyers the manufacturers would not accept. The offers inherited from the group's own pre-filing effort did not qualify either, "with most offers remaining subject to financing that never materialized and/or prospective purchasers that were never going to be approved by the OEMs," per the Third Report of the Monitor, Nov. 7, 2025, paras. 34–37, 40–43. On November 13, 2025, the court approved the Arrow VW sale and the sale of Castle Ford to Davis Auto Group Ltd., each with its real estate; the prices are in a confidential supplement the court sealed. Castle Ford closed on February 2, 2026, per the Eighth Report, paras. 6, 39.

The other four stores were wound down. Western Sport Products' inventory was auctioned for its secured lender, Northpoint Commercial Finance Canada Inc.; Vermilion Chrysler shut on or about March 31, 2026; and the net proceeds of the Vermilion and Cranbrook wind-downs, and of Squamish Chrysler's after a reserve, went to reduce BMO's floor-plan debt, per the Eighth Report, paras. 11, 42–48. At Squamish Chrysler, multiple lenders that had financed customers through its lending portal stopped or materially revised their approvals in March 2026; the monitor says it could not fully resolve that, given "previous pre-filing activities (financing sale pod activities)" and losses under former ownership, per the Seventh Report, para. 46. It now says the pod arrangements "resulted in falsified credit applications, lender chargebacks, and the termination of the majority of all lender relationships," and that certain of them have been linked to ongoing investigations by British Columbia's Vehicle Sales Authority and the Alberta Motor Vehicle Industry Council, per the Eighth Report, para. 49.

Sun Valley Nissan

Before the filing, the proposed monitor described Sun Valley Nissan's purchase agreement as "in near-final form," and a draft contemplated closing on December 1, 2025, per the Pre-Filing Report, para. 66(a) and the Gil Affidavit, para. 108. By May 2026 the party the monitor was negotiating with could not get financing, and on May 22 Justice C. D. Simard authorized the monitor to wind the dealership down, relief the monitor had sought in case no buyer was found, per the Seventh Report, paras. 52–54 and the Order, May 22, 2026, para. 9. With the manufacturer's help the monitor then found Dawson Automotive; two other parties introduced through BMO decided not to make formal offers, per the Eighth Report, para. 53.

The agreement, dated July 14, 2026, is expected to be assigned to a newly incorporated affiliate of the buyer. The base price and both deposits are redacted from the public copy. An additional price is set at closing, including new vehicles at net price, demonstrators at net price less $0.15 a kilometre for depreciation, and used vehicles one at a time, the buyer bidding a wholesale value for each while the vendors stay free to sell any of them to someone else for more until the closing reconciliation, per the Eighth Report, App. "K" (Asset Purchase Agreement, cover and ss. 3.1, 3.3–3.4). The deal is conditional on the buyer's financing, which the monitor understands the manufacturer's captive finance arm is expected to provide, and on Nissan's approval; when the report was written the agreement had not yet gone to Nissan, though the monitor expected its support. It is to close no later than September 30, 2026, per the Eighth Report, paras. 55–56, 66.