The Greater Toronto Area Commercial Crime Section, Toronto North Site, recently charged two individuals with the following offences under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act (BIA):

“A billion just isn’t what it used to be,” said Forbes associate editor Luisa Kroll, presenting the 20th annual Forbes magazine’s list of the world’s richest people at a New York new conference. National Post – March 10, 2006.

The Consumer Affairs funded report on credit counsellors was issued on November 20, 2006. The report raises concerns about poorly trained credit counsellors and the conflict of interest “non profit” credit counsellors have because they are funded by credit grantors.

Many trustees are now refusing to process proposals where the CRA debt is significant enough that a NO vote by CRA will cause the proposal to fail.

Bill 14, the proposed access to justice act, received third reading on October 5, 2006. With the bill reportedly set to pass this week, the regulation of the paralegal profession in Ontario will soon be a reality.

There is a bumpy ride ahead for most provincial economies in 2007 and even Alberta and BC are to ratchet down, a new forecast from economists at Toronto-Dominion Bank warns.

The Canadian Payday Loan Association renewed its plea Tuesday for the federal government to introduce legislation this fall that would give provinces the authority to regulate the country’s burgeoning payday loan industry.

CIBC forecasts bankruptcy rate jumping in ‘07

Canada’s Office of Consumer Affairs is undertaking the funding of a study on Credit Counsellors in order to ensure that consumers are well served and to reduce the risk of fraud or conflict of interest. Consumer Affairs was prompted to take this step by the widespread abuses of the credit counselling industry in the United States.

Canada is seen as being easy on corporate crooks. The examples of Livent Corp. and Bre-X Minerals Ltd. are cited to prove this contention.