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Difficulties in Alberta’s oil and gas industry are causing people to struggle to pay their bills, an insolvency expert says. Recently released figures show personal insolvencies continue to climb in Alberta. (Paul Haavardsrud/CBC) The difficulties in Alberta’s oil-and-gas market are likely pushing more people to file for insolvency, a bankruptcy expert says. In the past year, nearly 11,000 more Albertans filed either a consumer proposal or bankruptcy, up 8.4 per cent over the year before, according to new figures from the federal Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy. The statistics measure insolvencies over the year ending in November 2018. Data shows these recent figures are more stark than the year before, which recorded a 2.3 per cent increase in Alberta’s personal insolvencies. This past year’s increase overall, of personal and business insolvencies, placed Alberta as the second-highest among Canadian provinces at 8.3 per cent, beaten only by Newfoundland and Labrador. The oil-producing eastern province saw an increase of near 12 per cent. To find out what contributed to this change, Calgary Eyeopener radio host David Gray spoke with David Lewis, an executive board member of the Canadian Association of Insolvency and Restructuring Professionals. Here’s a portion of their conversation […]
