Employees were provided with a minivan only during periods that they were on-call to respond to emergency calls. The minivans (bearing the employer’s name) were specially adapted so that they could be used to transport all the equipment required to carry out the employees’ employment-related tasks.
Regarding whether the minivans were “automobiles”, CRA stated that “a minivan is generally an ‘automobile’ … even if it has been adapted by an employer to be used to transport equipment, unless one of the exceptions provided for in subparagraphs (e)(i) and (ii) of that definition applies” and that , regarding such exceptions, “a minivan is generally a vehicle of a type similar to a van-type vehicle because of its resemblance to a van, both in its design and in its use.”
Regarding the exception in (e)(i), it stated:
[A] minivan that originally had more than three seats could still be considered to have a maximum of three seats … for the purposes of subparagraph (e)(i) of the definition of "automobile" in subsection 248(1) if the modification reducing the number of seats to a maximum of three seats is of a permanent nature.