The appellant ("High-Crest") agreed with the Nova Scotia Department of Health (the "Department") to contract for a 20-bed addition to one of its nursing homes. It entered into a Development Agreement with the Department which required it to obtain mortgage financing to finance the construction (which it did with the Nova Scotia Housing Development Corporation), and also entered into a Service Agreement with the Department under which the Department agreed to pay approximately 2/3 of a stipulated per diem rate per resident (to cover operating and health costs), with the balance made up of direct accommodation charges by High-Crest to the resident. In rejecting a submission that the money payable to High-Crest by the Department was not "government funding" as it was not for the purpose of making residential units in the facility available to seniors but, rather, was payable for the purpose of securing the services stipulated in the Service Agreement, Owen J stated (at para. 93):
It is true that High-Crest was required to provide the Services as consideration for the payments it received from the Department. However, this does not alter the fact that the dominant purpose of the Department in entering into these arrangements and agreeing to make these payments was to secure additional long‑term care beds for seniors in Nova Scotia. The immediate result of the payments may have been the provision of the Services but that was not the purpose behind the payments.