Majority
I- LINE COMPANY (Plaintiff)
A PP'L*T,5 Apr. 22 AND
JASPER
SCHOOL
DISTRICT
RESPONDENT.
Judgment of the Court
RAND J.:-The question raised in this appeal is that of the taxability for school purposes of the pipe line of the Trans Mountain Oil Pipe Line Company, the appellant, which is carried through a portion of the respondent school district.
*PRESENT: Kerwin C.J. and Rand, Locke, Fauteux and Abbott JJ. '(1957), 20 W.W.R. 678.
51480-2-5
2 (1956), W.W.R. 273. The general scheme of the legislation dealing with Tas taxation can be shortly stated. The Assessment Act, R.S.A. 1942, c. 147 (now R.S.A. 1955, c. 17), provides the machinery and the subject-matter for the entire Province. Other statutes provide for the creation of municipal bodies, such as cities, towns, villages and municipal districts, for the administrative expenses of which the taxes are required; and these special Acts are to be read as if the provisions of The Assessment Act were incorporated in each of them.
The issue in this case arises out of subs. (6) of s. 6 of that Act:
The respondent is such a school district. That does not mean that for any purpose other than of taxation it ceases to be a school district; in all other respects, such as the scope of its activities and the money which it expends, it remains a school district; but its expenditure is looked upon as if it were for the ordinary administrative expenses of a town, to be raised as if the district were a town incorporated under The Town and Village Act, 1952 (Alta.), c. 97 (now R.S.A. 1955, c. 338).
The essential question is whether the "purposes of this Act" include not only the machinery of assessment, of taxation and of collection, but also the subject-matter of the taxation. When the assessor for the respondent district prepares to make up the roll, he must consult The Assessment Act as would a town assessor for the property which he is to include as assessable. He finds that, generally, all property within the territorial limits of the school district is liable, subject, among other exemptions not pertinent here, to the exemption of s. 5(1) (p), "Property assessable under . . The Pipe Line Taxation Act". When that Act, R.S.A. 1942, c. 52 (now R.S.A. 1955, c. 235) is referred to, it is seen that by s. 3(1) all pipe lines "situated outside of any city, town or village" are to be taxed exclusively by the Province. Since the assessor is to assess all taxable property within the boundaries of the district, which, for that purpose, is "deemed to be", i.e., as if it were, a town incorporated by law, he must include the property in question; it is within an area which, in law, for assessment purposes, is considered to be within such a town.
The argument against this, forcibly presented by Mr. Hyndman, was that the language of The Pipe Line Taxation Act, when it refers to "town", means a town formally incorporated under The Town and Village Act and not one that for certain purposes only is so deemed to be a town.
Both these statutes deal with taxation; and when s. 3(1) of The Pipe Line Taxation Act refers to lines "situated outside of any . . . town" it is concerned with a subject-matter of tax related to physical boundary, a feature to which all taxation of corporeal property is related. The effect of s. 6(6) of The Assessment Act is that the property within a district "deemed" to be a town is that within its boundaries as if it were a town. A like case would be that of a school district which contains a town within its boundaries. Section 28(2) of The School Taxation Act, R.S.A. 1942, c. 176 (now embodied in The School Act, R.S.A. 1955, c. 297) provides that:
What this does is to assimilate the subject-matter of assessment and taxation for school purposes to that of taxation for town purposes. The language in s. 6(6) "shall be deemed to be a town" has an equal if not greater effect in doing that than the language of s. 28. The only answer, apart from that already mentioned, is that the deeming "to be a town" or deeming to be "within the limits" attaches only the machinery of assessment and taxation and not subject-matter; but the language "for the purposes of this Act", i.e., The Assessment Act, cannot be limited to a part only of its purposes.
Two other grounds taken by Mr. Hyndman remain. He questioned whether the property of the appellant was within the language of The Assessment Act. By s. 7, all lands not specifically declared exempt, together with buildings and improvements, are to be assessed. By S.C.R.
s. 2(j), unless the context otherwise requires, land means "lands, tenements and hereditaments and any estate or interest therein", including minerals and growing timber. By s. 2(i) "buildings and improvements" include "all structures and fixtures erected upon, in, over, under or affixed to the parcel of land assessed". Section 12, dealing with a special situation, has application here:
These provisions are sufficiently wide to embrace the property in question. The easement granted the company by the Dominion Government, with the property of the company set in the land, a "structure" within the meaning of s. 2(i) and s. 12, is an interest in land which, though related to Dominion Crown lands, is now, beyond dispute, a subject-matter of provincial taxation.
The second point was that the impost, being a corporation tax, conflicted with the tax rental agreement between the Provincial and Dominion Governments of September 22, 1952, by which certain provincial taxing powers were agreed not to be exercised during a stated period. The tax is on an interest in real property and that is expressly excepted from the operation of the agreement by the language of item 4 of Appendix B containing the Acts or parts of Acts imposing taxes declared not to be corporation taxes, "The Assessment Act, R.S.A. 1942, c. 157, Tax on real and personal property (except -section 14)". Section 14 deals with railways.
I would, therefore, dismiss the appeal with costs. Appeal dismissed with costs.
Cases cited
- 20 W.W.R. 678 20 W.W.R. 678
- W.W.R. 273 W.W.R. 273
Statutes and regulations cited
-
Unresolved citations
- subs. (6)
- s. 6
- s. 5(1)
- s. 3(1)
- s. 3(1) of The Pipe Line Taxation Act
- s. 6(6) of The Assessment Act
- s. Section 28(2) of The School Taxation Act
- s. 6(6)
- s. 28
- s. 7
- s. 2(j)
- s. 2(i)
- Section 12
- s. 12
- section 14
- Section 14