Tribunals Ontario / Tribunaux décisionnels Ontario

Assessment Review Board / Commission de révision de l’évaluation foncière

ISSUE DATE: December 06, 2023

FILE NO.: WR 185601

Assessed Person(s): W.B.

Applicant(s): W.B.

Respondent(s): City of St. Catharines

Property Location(s): Address Withheld

Municipality(ies): City of St. Catharines

Roll Number(s): Roll Number Withheld

Appeal Number(s): 3518175 and 3518169

Taxation Year(s): 2021 and 2022

Hearing Event No.: 782766

Legislative Authority: Section 357(1)(d.1) of the Municipal Act, S.O.2001, c. 25, as amended

APPEARANCES:

Parties	Representative
W.B.	Self-represented
City of St. Catharines	Dawn Daly

HEARD: December 1, 2023, by telephone conference call

ADJUDICATOR(S): Margarita Okhovati, Member

DECISION

OVERVIEW

1This is a written decision of the oral decision rendered on December 1, 2023, requested by the Applicant.

Background

2W.B. (the “Applicant”) filed an application to the City of St. Catharines (the “City”) to have his 2021 and 2022 property taxes reduced, cancelled or refunded because he was unable to pay due to either sickness or extreme poverty under s. 357(1)(d.1) of the Municipal Act, S.O. 2001 c. 25 ( the “Act”).

3The City passed a by-law delegating its authority to determine such applications to the Assessment Review Board (the “Board”).

Issue

4The Board must determine if all or part of the Applicant’s 2021 and 2022 taxes should be cancelled, reduced or refunded as a result of the Applicant’s inability to pay due to sickness or extreme poverty. In order to make this determination, the Board must determine:

a) if the Applicant was unable to pay all or part of his property taxes; and

b) if the Board finds that he was unable to pay all or part of his property taxes, the Board must determine if the inability to pay was due to either sickness or extreme poverty.

Result

5The Board finds that the Applicant did not provide sufficient financial documentation for the Board to make a determination on whether all or part of the Applicant’s 2021 and 2022 property taxes should be cancelled, reduced or refunded as a result of the Applicant’s inability to pay due to sickness or extreme poverty.

6The Applicant’s application for the 2021 and 2022 taxation years is dismissed, due to the Applicant’s failure to comply with the Board’s Procedural Order.

Pre-hearing Conference

7On August 14, 2023, a pre-hearing conference was held to provide the Applicant with information about the full hearing and the documents that are required to support the application. On that hearing, the Applicant was notified of the Board’s scheduled full hearing date of September 11, 2023. The Applicant did not accept this date by stating that he would be unable to prepare all the required documents before the full hearing date and requested a later date for the full hearing. The Board accepted the Applicant’s request. It was agreed that the case-coordinator having carriage of this case, would reach out to the parties to canvas a full hearing date.

Procedural Order

8The Board issued a Procedural Order (DM 184847) on August 16, 2023. This outlined the information that was discussed at the pre-hearing and confirmed the required documents the Applicant needed to serve the City and file with the Board to support the application.

9The Procedural Order clearly indicated that the Applicant bears the burden of proof to show that he was unable to pay his property taxes in the 2021 and 2022 taxation years. It further emphasized that failure to provide the required documentation set out in the Order may result in a dismissal of the application.

10On consent of the parties, the Board set the full hearing date of telephone conference call on November 1, 2023. On that date, as a result of miscommunication between the Board and the parties regarding the telephone access code, the hearing was cancelled and re-scheduled for December 1, 2023.

11On December 1, 2023, the Applicant called in however, the Board was unable to conduct a full hearing because the Applicant’s documents, specifically bank account statements of 2021 and 2022 were either incomplete or dated 2023, which is outside of the requirements for 2021 and 2022 taxation years. When questioned as to why he did not submit the required documents, the Applicant argued that he did submit all the documents. However, the City confirmed that the documents they had received from the Applicant were the exact documents that the Board had in its possession.

ANALYSIS

12The Applicant bears the burden of proof to demonstrate that he was unable to pay his property taxes due to sickness of extreme poverty.

13In making a determination on the Applicant’s ability to pay his property taxes, the Board has to review the Applicant’s financial documentation in the 2021 and 2022 taxation years, which includes but is not limited to: evidence of income from all sources, evidence of monthly expenses and evidence of all assets and liabilities.

14In R.Q. v Mississauga (City), 2020 CanLII 103486 (ON ARB) the Board dismissed the Applicants’ application to cancel, reduce or refund of property taxes for failure to file the documentation that would have been necessary to determine that they were unable to pay taxes in 2019 because of sickness or extreme poverty.

15In this application, the Board finds that the Applicant has not complied with the Procedural Order. He failed to provide the necessary documents to the Board, to make a determination on whether he was unable to pay all or part of his property taxes in the 2021 and 2022 taxation years.

16Furthermore, the Applicant was unable to explain why he did not comply with the Board’s Rules of Practice and Procedure having had ample opportunity to do so. The Board finds that there is no prospect for preparing the documents should the Board have granted another extension to the Applicant.

ORDER

17The application filed by the Applicant to cancel, reduce or refund his property taxes for the 2021 and 2022 taxation years, as a result of the Applicant’s inability to pay due to sickness or extreme poverty is dismissed.