Ray-Mont – Federal Court of Appeal confirms applying 4-part Wiebe test to find employment notwithstanding intent of Quebec parties not to be employer-employee

Notwithstanding that a logistics company and workers performing loading work for it had intended their relationship to be one of independent contractors rather than of employment, the Tax Court went on to apply the four objective tests in Wiebe as to the presence of an employment relationship to find that there was one. Although the definition of employment in the Civil Code “places emphasis on the essential characteristic of direction or control,” Boivin JA found that even for Quebec workers “’a court does not err in taking into consideration as indicators of supervision the other criteria used under the common law [Wiebe tests of] the ownership of the tools, the chance of profit, the risk of loss, and integration into the business.’”

This is a different articulation of the tests than by Graham J in Insurance Institute - that under “Connor Homes … a different test must be applied [than in Wiebe] when the worker and the payor share a common intention.”

Neal Armstrong. Summaries of Ray-Mont Logistiques Montréal Inc. v. Canada (National Revenue), 2020 FCA 113 under s. 5(1) and General Concepts – Judicial Comity.