Vancouver Trade Mart Inc. ( Trustee of ) v. Canada ( Attorney General )
T-1071-96
Nadon J.
31/10/97
22 pp.
Application to set aside MNR decision requiring applicant, trustee of bankrupt company, Vancouver Trade Mart Inc. (VTM), to provide documents relating to bankrupt company and shareholders, pursuant to Income Tax Act (ITA), s. 231.2-VTM controlled by Lee couple and two children-Applicant informed MNR auditor of irregularities between VTM and shareholders and of suspicion shareholder had appropriated VTM funds for personal use-MNR auditor wrote applicant, requesting to be allowed to review its account analyses of bankrupt company, including analyses of shareholder accounts, for purpose of completing audit of Lee family-Applicant refused production of documents requested-Application dismissed-MNR's interpretation of ITA, s. 231.2 not amounting to justification of unreasonable search contrary to Charter, s. 8-R. v. McKinlay Transport Ltd., [1990] 1 S.C.R. 627 applied: while provision infringing expectation of privacy, given need for random monitoring to maintain integrity of tax system based on self-reporting and self-assessment, intrusion into privacy interests of taxpayer not unreasonable-No very high expectation of privacy respecting applicant's work as trustee of bankrupt estate-No conflict created between ITA and Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act (BIA) by application of s. 231.2(1): trustee can comply with ITA herein without breaching any portion of BIA-Minister's having access to trustee's working papers and account analyses not necessarily causing prejudice to bankrupt estate-ITA, s. 231.2 (1) simply allowing Minister, in proper circumstances, to obtain production of relevant information and documents so as to properly administer and enforce provisions of ITA-Not creating any incoherence between ITA and BIA-Minister's interpretation of ITA, s. 231.2(1) not leading to expropriation without compensation as no transfer of property or rights from one party to other-Applicant's working papers and account analyses not subject to solicitor-client privilege making it non-compellable to production under s. 231.2(1)-Object of work undertaken by trustee was to inform inspectors to bankruptcy in order to allow them to make proper decisions, initially with respect to VTM's proposal and subsequently regarding assets of bankrupt estate-Documents sought by Minister not prepared for "dominant purpose" of obtaining legal advice-Income Tax Act, R.S.C., 1985 (5th Supp.), c. 1, s. 231.2 (as am. by S.C. 1996, c. 21, s. 58)-Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act, R.S.C., 1985, c. B-3.