Cortland secures receiver for Saskatchewan refinery operator

Cortland Credit Lending Corporation obtained a receivership order on November 13 appointing KSV Restructuring Inc. as receiver and manager over Independent Renewable Resources Corp. and Independent Energy Holdings Inc. after the Alberta Court accepted that ongoing defaults and repeated operational setbacks at the Echo Refinery left no viable path under existing forbearance arrangements. Justice Bourque granted the order following a contested hearing on November 12, with judgment reserved until the following day.

IRRC operates the Echo Refinery, a used motor oil feedstock refinery in Bone Creek, Saskatchewan, through a modular processing facility designed to produce naphtha, gasoline, kerosene, and bunker residuals. The plant relies on feedstock supplied by several large waste management and recycling companies. Operations were suspended from October 2022 to November 2023 due to managerial issues, briefly restarted at reduced output in December 2023, and again paused in March 2024 before resuming in June 2024 with Cortland’s financial and strategic support. The facility requires continuous regulatory compliance, including licensing from the Saskatchewan Ministry of Environment and the Water Security Agency.

Cortland advanced credit under a February 2022 agreement, later amended on several occasions, establishing a $49.5 million facility with a $4.5 million accordion. By October 17, 2025, indebtedness had grown to $68,353,231. The lender had previously issued section 244 notices under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act in June 2023 and negotiated two forbearance frameworks, both of which acknowledged defaults and preserved Cortland’s enforcement rights. Despite the lender’s repeated accommodations, the borrowers continued to miss payment obligations after the credit facility matured, triggering an event of default under the credit agreement, collateral mortgage, and general security agreements.

The affidavit records ongoing liquidity constraints, multiple operational interruptions, and compliance obligations that demanded sustained capital outlays. These pressures weakened the companies’ ability to meet obligations under the loan documents, leading Cortland to conclude that continued forbearance would not restore the project to financial stability.

The receivership order grants KSV broad authority to take possession of all assets, operate the refinery if required, market and sell property. Professionals include Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP for Cortland, McKercher LLP for the respondents, and Bennett Jones LLP for the receiver.