Section 171 — Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act: Trustee’s report

On a request therefor by the Superintendent the trustee shall, within two months after the trustee’s appointment or within such longer period as the Superintendent may allow, prepare in the prescribed form and file with the Superintendent a report setting out the following information: the name of the debtor and, where the debtor is a corporation, the names and addresses of the directors and officers of the corporation and, when applicable, the names of the persons who in the opinion of the trustee actively controlled the day-to-day operations of the corporation or the business of the debtor or who in the opinion of the trustee were responsible for the greater proportion of the debtor’s liabilities or under whose directions in the opinion of the trustee the greater proportion of the debtor’s liabilities were incurred; whether in the opinion of the trustee the deficiency between the assets and the liabilities of the debtor has been satisfactorily accounted for or, if not, whether there is evidence of a substantial disappearance of property that is not accounted for; a statement of opinion by the trustee with respect to the probable causes of the bankruptcy, arrived at after consultation with the inspectors and other persons, which shall be expressed as resulting from one or more of the probable causes in the following enumeration: misfortune, inexperience, incompetence, carelessness, over-expansion, unwarranted speculation, gross negligence, fraud, and other probable cause (to be specified); and a statement of the facts and information on which the trustee relied in arriving at the opinion expressed pursuant to paragraphs (b) and (c). A separate report containing only the information to be given to the Superintendent pursuant to paragraphs (1)(a) and (b) shall be immediately prepared in the prescribed form by the trustee and a copy thereof shall be sent, by prepaid registered or certified mail in an envelope marked “private and confidential”, to each of the persons named pursuant to paragraphs (1)(a) and (b) in the report to the Superintendent. After the expiration of two months from the date of filing the report with the Superintendent and not later than three months after that date, the trustee shall file with the official receiver the report prepared pursuant to subsection (2). Notwithstanding subsection (3), where before he has filed his report with the official receiver pursuant to that subsection, the trustee is served with a copy of an application to the court, by any of the persons named pursuant to paragraphs (1)(a) and (b) in the report prepared pursuant to subsection (2), to have that report altered in any manner or to dispense with the requirements of subsection (3), the trustee shall not file the report under subsection (3) except as may be directed by the court. Where the report to be filed under subsection (3) has been altered in any respect on the direction of the court, the trustee shall inform the Superintendent of any alteration so made, and the Superintendent shall alter the report made to him by the trustee accordingly. The trustee is not liable for any statements made or opinions expressed by him in good faith and made or purporting to be made by him pursuant to this section, nor is any person liable for publishing, or referring to any matters contained in, the report of the trustee to the official receiver if the publication or reference is made after the filing of the report with the official receiver.