The City of Brandon (the City), the Province of Manitoba and Maple Leaf Meats Inc. (Maple Leaf) agreed that the latter would establish a hog processing plant (the Plant) within the City. The Plant would produce wastewater in quantities that could not be accommodated by the City’s existing wastewater treatment facilities. As a result, it was agreed that the City would construct a new wastewater treatment facility, at no cost to Maple Leaf, to process the wastewater produced by the Plant. The operating costs (plus a fee for overhead and administration) would initially be borne by the City, to be charged back to Maple Leaf on a cost recovery basis.
Pelletier JA first noted (at para. 39) that “no matter how one reads the sentence [in s. 22 of the English version], it is ungrammatical and ambiguous,” but then stated (at paras. 41, 44-45), before finding that the supply made by the City was exempted under s. 22:
The primary sense of the verb [“entrenir”] is sufficiently broad to include and, in my view, does include, the operation of a thing or a system. …
As for the meaning of the verbs “to maintain” and “entretenir”, there is an overlap between the two versions, with the French verb emphasizing a meaning which is present in English, though not as the primary meaning. … As a result, I would conclude … that section 22 is broad enough to include the “operation” of the wastewater disposal facility by the City.