Can a corporation grant a security interest to more than one lender over the same asset?

Yes. Ontario's Personal Property Security Act doesn't prevent a corporation from granting security interests in the same asset to more than one lender — it's common for a corporation to have a first lender with a general security agreement and later add a second lender, whether for additional working capital, equipment financing, or another purpose, secured against overlapping collateral.

What the PPSA does is provide the rules for sorting out who ranks first if there's a shortfall and the collateral's value isn't enough to satisfy every secured creditor. Generally, this comes down to which lender registered first, subject to exceptions such as a properly qualifying purchase-money security interest gaining priority over an earlier general interest. A second lender considering taking security over already-encumbered assets should search the PPSA registry first to understand exactly what priority position it would actually have, since being a registered secured creditor doesn't guarantee being paid ahead of an earlier lender with a stronger claim to the same collateral. In many cases, the corporation and its lenders will also negotiate an intercreditor or subordination agreement to clarify this in advance.