Supreme Court of Canada ends pension regulators' bid to hold successor company liable after AbitibiBowater restructuring
November 24, 2025
Pension regulators in New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador have failed to hold a restructured forestry company’s successor liable for extra contributions after several pension plans were wound up.
In 2024, a Quebec judge ruled that any claim against Resolute PF Canada Inc. for additional pension contribution payments was extinguished by the 2010 court order approving its predecessor company AbitibiBowater Inc.’s plan of arrangement in proceedings under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (“CCAA”).
Quebec’s Court of Appeal then denied the New Brunswick and Newfoundland & Labrador Superintendents of Pensions’ leave to appeal the ruling, characterizing the appeal as an attack on established case law regarding what constitutes a “provable claim” under CCAA proceedings.
The Supreme Court of Canada has now denied the New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador Superintendents’ leave to appeal the ruling by Quebec’s top court.
AbitibiBowater, the major forestry company, made its initial application under the CCAA in 2009, a few months after closing its plants in New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador.
During the restructuring proceedings, both New Brunswick’s and Newfoundland and Labrador’s Superintendents of Pensions indicated they might declare a partial termination of the plans that would accelerate the repayment of the pension plan’s accrual deficits.
Although ultimately neither Superintendent proceeded with the declaration, the Quebec judge’s initial ruling concluded that it nevertheless gave rise to a provable claim under the CCAA and that the claim had been extinguished by the subsequent order approving the plan of arrangement.
In the now-final ruling on the matter, the judge wrote that regulators should not be allowed to play both sides after intentionally delaying the declaration during CCAA proceedings, knowing it might have forced the company into bankruptcy and reduced members’ pensions.
Click ‘More Information’ below to review the case information:
