Bulk Sales Act Repealed

Ontario's Bulk Sales Act (the "BSA") is no more. The repeal was part of a number of legislative changes contained in the Burden Reduction Act, 2017 which received Royal Assent on March 22, 2017 and became part of the law of Ontario.

We reported last summer that the Government at Queen's Park had signalled its intention to repeal the BSA with legislation introduced in June of 2016. It has now followed through. The BSA had survived for a 100 years but finally succumbed to a consensus that it had outlived its usefulness and original purpose which was to protect creditors when a business is sold. It didn't apply to intangibles and it didn't apply to a sale of shares so its application was uneven and compliance was difficult. Ontario is now aligned with the other provinces that have repealed their bulk sales legislation.