Wednesday, February 1, 2006
Seven law professors from across Canada, led by Professor Emeritus Jacob Ziegel and Professor Tony Duggan of the University of Toronto, Faculty of Law, have submitted a 100-page brief to the House of Commons Industry Committee on Bill C-55. The Bill suggests many important amendments to Canada's bankruptcy legislation.

Given the length of the Bill (a massive 145 pages), the professors caution the Committee that the complexity of the issues need to be carefully considered before the bill is approved by the House.

In particular, they say, the Bill seriously neglects consumer insolvency problems, and most of the amendments are unfavourable or irrelevant to consumers facing serious debt problems. In addition, says Prof. Ziegel, "There's much needless duplication in the bill and judges and insolvency practitioners will have difficulties coming to grips with the bill's complexities." The authors also strongly argue that the law would be much simplified if the Companies Creditors' Arrangement Act were merged with the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act (BIA).

The professors' written submission also notes that the BIA contains many obsolete provisions and the authors argue that a completely revised BIA is much overdue and would be better than the incremental changes that the federal government has been introducing over the past 13 years.