Imray v. Canada
T-676-90
Campbell J.
6/10/98
14 pp.
Appeals from MNR's denial of deduction of expenses relating to attending annual two-day Teachers' Convention as required by employment-Whether deductible under Act, s. 8(1)(h)(i) (allowing deduction where taxpayer "ordinarily required to carry on duties of his employment away from his employer's place of business or in different places")-Only issue for determination meaning of word "ordinarily" in Act, s. 8(1)(h)(i)-Appeals allowed-R. v. Healy, [1979] 1 F.C. 81 (T.D.), revd by Healy v. R., [1979] 2 F.C. 49 (C.A.) base precedents on meaning of "ordinarily" in s. 8(1)(h)(i) and s. 8(4)-In F.C.A. decision, Urie J.A. stated "objective of s. 8(1)(h)(i) to enable employees required by employment to work from time to time away from places at which usually work, to deduct out-of-pocket expenses in so doing"-Opinion accepted and applied as the test in Tremblay v. Canada (1997), 223 N.R. 85 (F.C.A.)-MNR argued "ordinarily" function of frequency-Not possible as general rule, nor advisable, to say that certain frequency of occurrence complies with requirements of provision, since individual set of circumstances might be far more difficult to analyse fairly than this rather simple approach would allow-Adoption of linear approach would not generate just result in each case, and would generate confusion-Rather, mandated approach to consider particular set of facts as function of unique context in which they arise-Latter approach avoiding complication raised in argument for MNR that, if plaintiffs' argument acceded to, dangerous precedent would be set, not only for cases of like nature, but also for other cases in Act involving word "ordinarily"-Requirement of plaintiffs' attendance at convention function of legal, administrative and ethical expectations which apply to all teachers in Alberta-Within context, fact convention occurs only once per year minor factor-Teachers' Convention "normal", "matter of regular occurrence", "commonly" and "usually" occurs, and requirement which takes teachers "from time to time away from places where they usually work"-Conformity with synonyms provided in Healy decisions, and test expressed in Tremblay has been met-Income Tax Act, S.C. 1971-72-73, c. 63, s. 8(1)(h)(i), (4).