- Parties: The applicant was the Attorney General of Canada. The respondent was Aéroports de Montréal.

- Subject Matter: The respondent brought a claim brought before an arbitral tribunal under the Commercial Arbitration Code pursuant to an arbitration clause in an agreement between the parties. The agreement gave an arbitral tribunal jurisdiction to decide certain issues between the parties. The applicant applied for a determination of the arbitral tribunal’s jurisdiction under s. 16(3) of the Commercial Arbitration Code and under r. 324(1) of the Federal Courts Rules, SOR/98-106. The applicant wanted the court to dismiss the respondent’s claim before the arbitral tribunal on a preliminary basis by reason of the declinatory exception.

- Ruling: The court ruled in the respondent’s favour and dismissed the applicant’s application for declinatory exception. The court found that, because the reimbursement of payments in lieu of taxes (PILT) was part of the respondent’s obligations under the ground lease as “Additional Rent”, a dispute over an overpayment of “Additional Rent” was a dispute under the Ground Lease that could be referred to an arbitral tribunal in line with the arbitration clause in the Agreement to Transfer.

- Date: The hearing was set on June 12, 2023. The court released its decision on Nov. 24, 2023.

- Venue: This was a federal case before the Federal Court.

- Amount: The court granted the respondent costs calculated based on the middle of Column III of Tariff B.