Gélinas – Court of Quebec finds that a Montreal site qualified as a special work site for a 3 ½ year project

The taxpayer, who had purchased a house in Richmond, Quebec in 1999 to reside there with his family, worked for his employer (“GPH”) as a project engineer regarding the construction or expansion of factories. Although normally, on such projects, the client of GPH would pay the accommodation costs of the GPH employees who worked on the project, that was not the case for a project for one of the clients in the Montreal area (about 90 minutes from Richmond), which started in 2014 and lasted for 3 ½ years.

GPH agreed to cover the costs of an apartment in the Montreal area, which the taxpayer’s wife and son moved into, but not their daughter. GPH also paid the taxpayer an allowance of $25 per day for travel to clients and restaurant expenses, plus $37.50 for each trip between the Longueuil apartment and the Richmond house.

In finding that these amounts were not includible in the taxpayer’s income pursuant to the Quebec equivalents of ITA ss. 6(6)(a)(i) and (b)(i), Lapierre JCQ stated:

[T]he fact that the wife and one of the children of the couple also lived in the Longueuil apartment is not very important … .

… Mr. Gélinas returned to his Richmond home frequently, either on weekends or at least once a month for maintenance and insurance requirements. In addition, Mr. Gélinas maintained his relationships with health care professionals in Richmond or its immediate area, and continued to maintain other activities of his personal life there.

Neal Armstrong. Summary of Gélinas v. Agence du revenu du Québec, 2021 QCCQ 4841 under s. 6(6)(a)(i).