The taxpayer’s father (Dennis) was a Guyanese resident, came to Canada on a visitor’s visa for a two-week stay but, during that stay, suffered a heart attack and was hospitalized for eight weeks, and then required rehabilitative medical care during his convalescence. He passed away six months later.
Dennis qualified as being factually dependent on the taxpayer during his stay. Bocock J found that the taxpayer could not deduct the $18,700 in healthcare costs incurred for Dennis’ care because Dennis did not satisfy the requirement in s. 118(6)(b) of being “resident in Canada at any time in the year.” Bocock J noted that the quoted phrase was used 17 times in the Act including in the charging provision (s. 2(1)) and applied “the presumption of consistent application” to find that, because Dennis was not ordinarily resident in Canada (nor a deemed resident), the s. 118(6)(b) test was not satisfied.