Stratas JA found that in the years in question there was no provision requiring that the choice of method by the registrant for computing input tax credits be irrevocable, noted that such an absence was telling as "Parliament knows how to signal those legal consequences," (para. 42) and that, in fact, such a provision was subsequently enacted (para. 44):
The words of new subsection 141.02(17) of the Act are exactly the sort of precise words that one would expect to see if the respondent's interpretation in this appeal were sound. But in the version of the Act at issue in this appeal, words such as that are not present.