Federal Court Confirms it has No Jurisdiction in Bankruptcy Matters

In GCMR Contracting Inc v. MNP Ltd, 2026 FC 468, the Federal Court recently confirmed that it has no jurisdiction to hear appeals of decisions by trustees to approve or disallow claims, exclusive jurisdiction over those matters – and all bankruptcy matters with one narrow exception – rests with the provincial superior courts.

After the bankruptcy trustee – MNP Ltd. – disallowed the Applicant’s claim, the Applicant applied for judicial review to the Federal Court. The Federal Court held – and the Applicant admitted – that it did not have any jurisdiction over the matter.

Section 183(1) of the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act (BIA) provides that the provincial superior courts have jurisdiction over bankruptcy and other matters under the BIA. While section 183(1) does not state that the provincial superior courts have exclusive jurisdiction over bankruptcy matters, section 17(6) of the Federal Courts Act provides that if a federal statute (such as the BIA) confers jurisdiction on a provincial court in respect of a matter, the Federal Court will have no jurisdiction in respect of that matter unless the federal statute expressly gives it that authority. The BIA only gives authority to the Federal Court to review decisions by the Superintendent of Bankruptcy to sanction trustees (see section 14.02(5)). The combined effect of these two statutory provisions is that all other BIA matters are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the provincial superior courts.

The Applicant should have applied to the relevant superior court under section 37 of the BIA. The Applicant’s failure to file in the right court resulted in a cost award being made against it due to the “unnecessary waste of time and resources associated with the hearing”.

To view the original article click here.