(L to R): Professor Tamara Buckwold, Professor Rod Wood, Assistant Professor Anna Lund, Mr. Rick Reeson, Q.C.
UAlberta Law professors Tamara Buckwold, Rod Wood, and Anna Lund and sessional instructor Rick Reeson, Q.C. joined colleagues from across the country on November 18-19 at a commercial law conference hosted by the University of Saskatchewan College of Law in Saskatoon.
The conference - organized by two USask Law professors, including UAlberta Law alumnus Clayton Bangsund, currently finishing his PhD under the supervision of Professor Wood - was an opportunity to honour Professor Ron Cuming, who has been teaching at the University of Saskatchewan for an impressive half-century. During his tenure, Professor Cuming taught thousands of students, including professors Buckwold and Wood and Mr. Reeson.
The conference opened with a keynote address from The Honourable Mr. Justice Donald H. Layh of the Court of Queen's Bench of Saskatchewan, celebrating Professor Cuming's 50 years of excellence. On November 19, conference attendees reconvened for four sessions on the following topics: the Personal Property Security Act; bankruptcy, insolvency, receivership and restructuring; judgment enforcement; mortgage law reform - and a panel discussion with practitioners, including Mr. Reeson, a partner at Miller Thomson in Edmonton.
During the session on bankruptcy, insolvency, receivership, and restructuring, Professor Wood presented on receiverships, and how receivership practice has changed. He used statistics provided by the Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy (OSB) to show that private receiverships are less common than they used to be, but still quite popular in Atlantic Canada. He also provided his analysis of OSB statistics showing the Companies Creditors Arrangement Act proceedings have replaced receiverships on very big files, but receiverships are still being used on smaller corporate insolvencies.
During the same session, Assistant Professor Lund presented on the degree to which debtors should be able to avoid regulatory obligations (e.g., professional sanctions or environmental liabilities) when they use insolvency proceedings. She argued that the current test, articulated by the Supreme Court of Canada in Newfoundland and Labrador v AbitibiBowater Inc., should be modified to make more room for courts to consider the important public interests in health, safety, and the environment, protected by provincial regulatory regimes. The issue is currently before the Alberta Court of Appeal in the Redwater case.
During the session on judgment enforcement, Professor Buckwold reviewed the reform of judgment enforcement law, highlighting the central themes and key differences in the statutory models implemented through the Alberta Civil Enforcement Act (1994) and the Saskatchewan Enforcement of Money Judgments Act (2010). Professors Buckwold and Cuming wrote the reports that led to the enactment of the Enforcement of Money Judgments Act.