The taxpayer, which had claimed deductions for donations made to U.S. charities under the Quebec charitable gift rules, requested an amendment to its pleadings to claim, in the alternative, that its donations were deductible as business (promotional) expenses, relying on Olympia. In confirming the refusal below to allow this amendment, the Court of Appeal essentially found that Olympia was inconsistent with the Symes approach to statutory interpretation, stating:
The specific tax treatment provided in the TA respecting gifts must prevail similarly to the pronouncements of the Supreme Court in Symes… . The Court specified there that child care expenses could not be deducted as business expenses under the applicable tax principles, in the face of a specific and complete regime for child care expenses provided in section 63 of the Income Tax Act. The same reasoning should be favoured in addressing the treatment of gifts.