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Federal Finance - Financial Administration Act (Cda). Ontario Addiction Treatment Centres v. Canada (Attorney General)
In Ontario Addiction Treatment Centres v. Canada (Attorney General) (Fed CA, 2023) the Federal Court of Appeal considered an appeal from a JR of a refusal to grant a "request for remission of tax under subsection 23(2) of the (SS: federal) Financial Administration Act":[2] For relief under subsection 23(2), the taxpayer must show that “collection… or… enforcement… [would be] unreasonable, unjust or…otherwise [not] in the public interest”. Multiple factors, sometimes subjective and impressionistic, fall to be considered. The decision, based on these factors, is highly discretionary. As a result, it is often said that relief under the subsection is unusual or extraordinary.
[3] Using the terminology of Canada (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration) v. Vavilov, 2019 SCC 65, [2019] 4 S.C.R. 653, decisions of this sort are relatively unconstrained: the Minister has a discretion of sweeping ambit based on wide criteria. Thus, courts conducting reasonableness review rarely set aside these decisions: Fink v. Canada (Attorney General), 2019 FCA 276, [2019] D.T.C. 5127; Escape Trailer Industries Inc. v. Canada (Attorney General), 2020 FCA 54, 86 Admin. L.R. (6th) 1. In practical terms, normally only a fundamental misreading or misapplication of subsection 23(2), irrationality, or bad faith on the part of the Minister will lead to relief.
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[9] We also agree with the Federal Court’s conclusion and its reasons at paras. 81-89 on the issue of procedural fairness. In the context of remissions under subsection 23(2), the level of procedural fairness is relatively low: Desgagnés Transarctik Inc. v. Canada (Attorney General), 2014 FCA 14, 454 N.R. 381; Waycobah First Nation v. Canada (Attorney General), 2011 FCA 191, 421 N.R. 193. In this case, the Appellant made full submissions in support of its position. The Minister considered those submissions. Nothing in the circumstances of this case suggests that the Minister had to seek further information, documents or submissions from the Appellant.
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