The taxpayer started in 2006 to work exclusively at a succession of pipeline-construction jobs in Alberta (or, on occasion, in B.C.) in all but about three or four of the winter months - during which he would visit his parents and friends in Quebec (while generally staying in a hotel), or travel to warmer locations. Because his work sites kept shifting, he did not acquire a permanent home in Alberta. Previously single, he married in 2016 in Alberta, and moved with his spouse to Quebec in 2020, but following a rupture, he resumed his life in Alberta two years later.
In finding that the taxpayer was not resident in Quebec for the years assessed by the ARQ (2008 to 2013), Bergeron JCQ stated (at paras. 41, 46 and 66, TaxInterpretations translation):
The Court does not believe that Mr. Marchessault must deprive himself of the opportunities afforded by his mode of life to visit his parents in order to break his ties of residence to Quebec. Furthermore, his situation is distinguishable from that of a taxpayer who makes regular returns to Quebec to visit spouse and children … .
… Mr. Marchessault had a roof in Alberta, without having purchased a home there. However, the … [quoting Thomson] “spatial bounds within which he [spent] his life” were within Alberta throughout the Period … . .
Mr. Marchessault clearly demonstrated his intention from his adolescence to become established in western Canada.
His purchase of a house in Quebec was solely for the use of his aunt to provide a place for her and her children to stay.