Lexin files found in ladies’ room
Receiver’s report details recovery of documents
• The Alberta Energy Regulator is suing insolvent Lexin Resources Ltd. to recover money it is allegedly owed, while the company’s receiver claims in a report that it is working to retrieve Lexin documents from garbage bags, a storage locker and even a women’s washroom.
Borden Ladner Gervais partner Robyn Gurofsky, acting on behalf of Lexin’s court- appointed receiver Grant Thornton LLP, asked an Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench judge Tuesday to approve a plan, negotiated with Lexin’s l awyers, for the handover of various recovered documents so the receiver can prepare Lexin’s assets for sale.
Gurofsky said the receiver must have the records to establish a data room and drum up interest for asset sales.
The negotiated plan will allow Lexin’s l egal team to review documents in a limited period of time and then hand over documents not subject to lawyer- client privilege. Any records relating to emergency procedures or safety, however, would be immediately released to the Alberta Orphan Well Association (OWA).
Lexin was a relatively small natural gas producer in southern Alberta but its insolvency has outsized implications because it owned 1,514 well licenses — many in partnership with 51 other energy companies — which could now become the responsibility of the OWA and double the number of wells under agency management.
The AER took the unusual step of pushing the company into receivership and is now demanding damages f rom t he company. Lexin is appealing the AER decision with a hearing scheduled Wednesday. The AER’s amended statement of claim asks for $ 1 million plus “any amounts owed to the Orphan Fund.”
The claim also repeats the allegation, reported by the Financial Post, that Lexin owes the AER $70 million in deposits for well liabilities.
“It is not open for a licensee, when times get tough, to transfer the burdens associated with holding AER licenses to the AER and/or the OWA, which is exactly what Lexin is attempting to do here,” the AER’s suit alleges, adding that Lexin is trying to “fob off ” its responsibilities.
The AER and receiver, Grant Thornton, declined to discuss the document recovery process, citing Tuesday’s court application.
Scotiabank has received eight complaints related to sales practices out of the 400 million transactions the bank conducted last year, Porter said Tuesday.
“We take each of those eight very seriously, we investigate them,” he said.
Executives at both Scotiabank and BMO said Tuesday the banks regularly review their processes and did so after U.S. bank Wells Fargo became embroiled in a scandal involving abusive sales practices in its branches last year.
Downe outlined BMO’s “robust” checks and balances, such as performance scorecards where customer satisfaction is equally weighted alongside customer purchases and a process whereby accounts that are cancelled soon after opening are scrutinized. BMO hasn’t seen any movement in the number of incidents of employee or customer dissatisfaction in the most recent period, Downe added.
“I believe that we have a sound philosophy around doing business, and that’s what I see the evidence supporting,” he told reporters.
Both executives also weighed in on the importance of open trade after U.S. President Donald Trump took the first steps last week toward redrawing the North American Free Trade Agreement. NAFTA could be updated to “better reflect today’s realities” but “open markets remain the surest path to greater prosperity,” Porter told shareholders. “We agree that it would be timely to update some provisions ... For example, provisions governing services, e-commerce, and intellectualproperty protections could all be added to the agreement,” he said.
Scotiabank has the largest international presence of the Canadian banks, with a footprint in Mexico, Chile, Peru and Colombia. Porter reiterated that Scotiabank remained “confident about Mexico’s economic prospects in the near term, and especially over the longer term.”
Downe told reporters that NAFTA could be improved but BMO’s view is “more open borders and trade agreements that have multi parties to them are the most efficient.”