The taxpayer, a CRA employee, relocated from Ottawa to Toronto to take a new position with CRA. Before having a chance to purchase a Toronto home, he was required to return to Ottawa for a 20-week period to work on a large tax appeal. For that period, it was also uncertain which CRA office the taxpayer would end up at. The taxpayer claimed $4975 in resulting room rental costs as a moving expense, which the Minister denied based on the 15-day limit in s. 62(3)(c).
Hogan J found that the words "meals and lodging" did s. 62(3)(c) applied to "room and board" expenses and did not apply to lodgings alone, and hence neither did the 15-day restriction - although, in any event, s. 62(3) is an "includes" list that merely extends the ordinary meaning of "moving expenses" in s. 62(1). The room rental costs were moving expenses, given that (para. 15):
[T]he Appellant's employer prolonged the completion of the Appellant's move to Toronto. ... The Appellant should not be penalized for accommodating the needs of his employer.