The Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act has always been a flexible instrument. But the tools available under it have expanded considerably, and the economic conditions demanding those tools are more uncertain than they have been in a generation. The 2026 Lexpert Special Edition on Insolvency and Restructuring examines both the evolution of practice under the CCAA and the building pressure that tariffs and trade disruption are placing on Canadian companies.
The tools have become established
Few developments better illustrate how far the CCAA has travelled from its plan-of-arrangement origins than the reverse vesting order. A remedy courts once regarded as exceptional has become, in the words of Guillaume Michaud, partner and Canadian head of restructuring at Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP, "the rule that we call the exception." Michaud describes the growth of RVOs since approximately 2019 as "exponential," and regards them as "a victory for efficiency in insolvency law and practice."
Christian Lachance, a partner at Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP, makes the same observation about creditor-led proceedings. "Creditor-led CCAA is probably not a trend anymore, and is more an established practice," he says. The rise of what practitioners are calling the "super monitor" has been central to that shift. Heather Meredith, a partner in the bankruptcy and restructuring group at McCarthy Tétrault LLP, describes the super monitor as "much more like a receiver, but in a CCAA context" – giving creditors the control they would expect in a receivership without abandoning the flexibility of a CCAA proceeding. Brad Wiffen, a partner at Goodmans LLP, frames it as a synthesis: "In some ways, a creditor-driven CCAA proceeding takes the cost-effectiveness of a receivership process, and then combines it with the flexibility of a CCAA process."
Greater flexibility has come with greater scrutiny, including a tighter judicial approach to director and officer releases. Geneviève Cloutier, leader of the restructuring and insolvency group at Gowling WLG, observes "a genuine effort by the courts across Canada to tighten up those releases." The interaction between RVOs and the Wage Earner Protection Program remains unresolved, with appeals pending before the Quebec and Nova Scotia Courts of Appeal. Aryo Shalviri, a partner at Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP, notes that WEPP availability "becomes an important policy consideration when weighing the merits of a receivership versus a CCAA."
Filings hold steady, but pressure builds
Against that backdrop, CCAA filing volumes have remained broadly stable. Wiffen cites figures from the Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy showing 66 filings in 2025–2026, a 5.7-per-cent decrease from the prior year. "Overall, I would say it has been pretty stable," he says. Cloutier puts the average at approximately 70 annually over the past three years.
Aggregate stability, however, masks sector-level stress. Christopher Burr, a partner at Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP, identifies real estate as the dominant factor: "The ongoing downturn in provincial real estate markets continues to be a predominant factor in insolvency filings." Retail, logistics and cannabis continue to generate disproportionate shares of formal proceedings, while manufacturing and automotive businesses face particular exposure to cross-border trade disruption.
The harder question is what comes next
The most significant variable may not be any particular sector but the uncertainty created by the Canada–US trade war. Denis Ferland, a Montreal-based partner at Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP who specializes in bankruptcy and insolvency, argues that the more serious damage is not the tariffs themselves but what they produce: "The uncertainty causes businesses to slow investment, slow or delay transactions, and that in itself is bad."
Natasha MacParland, a partner at Dentons Canada LLP and national co-leader of the firm's restructuring, insolvency and bankruptcy group, cautions against expecting an immediate surge in filings. "The reality is that the full impact of the tariffs is just going to take time," she says. "In 12 months or 18 months [we'll see] which companies have been able to mitigate the impact and which ones have not."
Lachance frames the risk more pointedly, noting that companies already weakened by the pandemic may never have resolved their underlying problems. "Is the tariff war going to be the straw that breaks the camel's back?" he asks. "Could be."
The practitioner consensus on how to respond is consistent across all three features: act early. Meredith's formulation is direct: "Don't surprise your lender." Michaud grounds it in diagnosis: "Every file is different, but you need to understand the cause before finding the remedy."
The CCAA and the lawyers who use it have more instruments than ever before. Whether those instruments are equal to the uncertainty ahead is the question the market is beginning to answer.
The Lexpert Special Edition on Insolvency and Restructuring profiles Canada's top-ranked insolvency and restructuring lawyers, guiding clients through an era of evolving tools and mounting economic pressure.