COMPATIBILITY OF FEDERAL AND PROVINCIAL PERSONAL PROPERTY SECURITY LAW

Abstract

The enactment of Personal Property Security Acts in several Canadian jurisdictions in recent years has forced a complete re-examination of the relationship between federal and provincial personal property security law. Changes in banking practices induced by new attitudes toward the use of provincial personal property security law in bank financing have given rise to important questions, the answers to which are not always to be found in established principles. In this article, the authors examine the legal implications associated with these developments. They seek to dispel some of the misconception which has crept into legal thinking in this area of the law. In addition, they describe a set of approaches to the relationship between sections 178-180 of the Banks and Banking Law Amendment Act and provincial Personal Property Security Acts which, if adopted, would provide a legally sound, if uneasy accommodation between the two systems, based on a recognition of the essential features of each.