Law360 Canada ( December 13, 2019, 1:33 PM EST) -- Appeal and cross-appeal from a judgment of the British Columbia Court of Appeal affirming a decision that the Excise Tax Act (ETA) did not apply to the British Columbia Investment Management Corporation (BCI) and that BCI was subject to the obligations set out in the intergovernmental agreements. In 1999, the legislature of British Columbia created BCI to provide investment management services to the province’s public sector pension plans and other Crown entities. On its creation, BCI assumed ownership and management of the investment assets held in pooled investment Portfolios. The Attorney General of Canada (Canada) submitted that this structure required BCI to collect and remit GST on the costs it incurred in making investments in the Portfolios on behalf of the public sector pension boards and other Crown entities. Canada further submitted that because the investment assets were beneficially owned by private entities (the pension boards), they were not provincial “property” and were not constitutionally immune from federal taxation, or even if they were, BCI nevertheless had to pay GST pursuant to reciprocal taxation agreements signed by the federal and provincial governments (the Agreements). BCI argued that the provisions of the ETA did not capture its investment management activities, and that even if the Province was bound by the Agreements, BCI was not a party and was not subject to them. BCI filed a petition in the Supreme Court of British Columbia, seeking declarations that, as a statutory Crown agent, it was immune from taxation in respect of the Portfolios assets and that it was not bound by the Agreements or the payment obligations found in those Agreements. Canada sought to strike BCI’s petition, arguing that the dispute should be heard by the Tax Court of Canada, not the Supreme Court of British Columbia. The chambers judge held that the Court had jurisdiction to decide the petition, and that BCI, as a statutory agent mandated to manage the Portfolios, enjoyed the same tax immunity as the Province under s. 125 of the Constitution Act, 1867. Canada appealed the holding that BCI was immune from taxation and BCI cross-appealed with respect to the binding nature of the Agreements. Both the appeal and cross-appeal were dismissed by the Court of Appeal....