S. 32 of the Quebec Mining Duties Act (MDA) provided a credit to an operator equal generally to an amount not exceeding 12% of the lesser of (i) its annual loss (excluding the portion thereof attributable to ore processing activities) and (ii) the amount by which the expenses in respect of exploration, mineral deposit evaluation and mine development work, incurred by the operator for the fiscal period in connection with the mining operation, exceeds the amount of government assistance that the operator received or was entitled to receive relating to those expenses.
After finding that this credit was not required to be included in income under s. 12(1)(x.2), CRA noted that it:
has taken the position in the past that the RDCL does not reduce cumulative Canadian exploration expenses ("CCEE") and cumulative Canadian development expenses ("CCDE"), on the basis that the RDCL was too remote from the Canadian exploration expense ("CEE") and Canadian development expense ("CDE") and therefore did not have a sufficiently direct connection to the CEE and CDE incurred by the particular corporation to fall within element J of the definition of CCEE in subsection 66.1(6) and the description of M in the definition of CCDE in subsection 66.2(5) … .