In the course of an audit, the Minister mailed the taxpayer some draft assessments proposing to disallow certain of the taxpayer's claimed deductions in prior years. The taxpayer applied for judicial review of the Minister's "decision" to proceed with the issuance of notices of reassessment.
R Morneau, prothonotary, granted the Minister's motion to strike the taxpayer's application. He stated (at paras. 22-24):
...ColasCanada is challenging draft assements and not formally issued assessments. ... [T]heoretically, the objection and appeal regime under the [ITA] is still not open or available and section 18.5 of the Federal Courts Act ... cannot in theory be raised to preclude the notice of application.
However, and as asked in JP Morgan ... , does this mean that the taxpayer can proceed to Federal Court?
As set out in JP Morgan [at para. 84], the answer to this question is no because later, if and when draft assessments materialize into actual assessments, the TCC's objection and appeal regime will come into play ... :
... A judicial review brought in the face of adequate, effective recourse elsewhere or at another time cannot be entertained [R Morneau's emphasis].