American Income Life Insurance Company v. The Queen, 2008 DTC 3631, 2008 TCC 306 -- summary under Article 5

A U.S.-resident life insurance company was found not to have a permanent establishment in Canada. The offices of its Canadian agents were not at its disposal (it did not have freedom to enter the buildings or control over the manner in which the buildings were used and did not pay the expenses of the premises). Furthermore, the Canadian agents did not habitually exercise in Canada an authority to conclude contracts in the name of the taxpayer. Although the Canadian agents issued "conditional receipts" in Canada providing temporary insurance, the policies which the taxpayer ultimately issued in the United States following the completion of the underwriting process stated that the final contract and the application (in connection with which the conditional receipts were issued) were one entire contract, and it was clear that those contracts were concluded in the United States rather than in Canada. Furthermore, even if this conclusion were not correct, the Canadian agents had an independent status: it was not determinative of economic dependency that they dealt only in insurance products of the taxpayer.