McAnulty v. The Queen, 2001 DTC 942 (TCC) -- summary under Paragraph 110(1)(d)

The time at which the taxpayer's employer agreed to issue shares to her was the time at which the president called her to his desk and told her that he was going to issue to her 45,000 stock options at a $1.50, rather than at the later date when a written stock option agreement was signed by the president and a related directors' resolution was passed. The president had ostensible authority to commit the company to issue shares to her (notwithstanding that the Board of Directors in fact had not delegated this authority to him as required by the stock option plan), and failure to comply, on the earlier date, with a stipulation in the stock option plan that the options be granted to her pursuant to a written and approved stock option agreement related to failure to comply with administrative rules rather than invalidating the grant. Bowman T.C.J. noted (at p. 948) that "the words 'agree' or 'agreement' generally connote to a lawyer a binding contractual commitment" but then stated (at p. 950) that "a broader approach to the interpretation of 'agree' and 'agreement' in paragraph 110(1)(d) is required if the object of that paragraph is to be achieved".