The Appellant (a car manufacturer) was the administrator of various defined benefit pension plans for its employees. It directed the trustee of the plans to pay the fees of third party portfolio advisors out of the trust assets. As it was the Appellant who was contractually obligated to pay those fees, and as s. 267.1 did not deem the portfolio advisory services to have been acquired by the trust, the Appellant was the recipient of those services. Campbell J stated (at paras. 50-52):
It appears that, where a person is the recipient of the supply, the Act expressly contemplates that GST is payable by that person.
…[S]ection 168 provides that:
Tax … is payable by the recipient on … the day the consideration for the supply becomes due.
While the amendment to subsection 169(1) in April 1997 replaced the phrase “supplied to” with the term “acquires”, a determination as to who is the recipient of the supply remains directly relevant in dealing with the question “was GST payable by GMCL?” I do not believe that the 1997 amendment replaced the focus on the central determination in this appeal of which party is contractually liable to pay GST pursuant to the Agreements.