E.M. v. City of Mississauga, 2024 CanLII 80293

Tribunals Ontario

Tribunaux décisionnels Ontario

Assessment Review Board

Commission de révision de l’évaluation foncière

ISSUE DATE: August 20, 2024

FILE NO.: WR 186692

Assessed Person(s): E.J.M.

Applicant(s): E.M.

Respondent(s): City of Mississauga

Property Location(s): Address Withheld

Municipality(ies): City of Mississauga

Roll Number(s): Roll Number Withheld

Appeal Number(s): 3523570

Taxation Year(s): 2023

Hearing Event No.: 784704

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

APPEARANCES:

Parties	Representative
E.M.	Self-represented
City of Mississauga	Sean Doyle

HEARD: August 13, 2024, by video conference

ADJUDICATOR(S): Margarita Okhovati, Member

DECISION

OVERVIEW

1This is a written decision of the oral decision rendered on August 13, 2024.

Background

2E.M. (the “Applicant”) filed an application to the City of Mississauga (the “City”) to have his 2023 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 2023 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 to the Board to make a determination on whether all or part of the Applicant’s 2023 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 2023 taxation year is dismissed, due to the Applicant’s failure to comply with the Board’s Procedural Order.

Procedural Order

7On June 3, 2024, 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.

8The Board issued a Procedural Order (DM 186354) on June 5, 2024. 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. The Applicant was to serve and file the required documentation by July 15, 2024, and the City to provide any material and response to the Applicant’s documentation by July 22, 2024.

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 2023 taxation year. 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, it was determined that the full hearing video conference would be held on July 29, 2024, at 1:30 p.m.

Adjournment

11On July 29, 2024, the Applicant participated in the hearing however, the hearing did not proceed because of technical problems. The hearing was adjourned and on the consent of the parties, the next full hearing was scheduled on August 13, 2024 at 1:30 p.m.

12On August 13, 2024, the Applicant called in at 1:30 p.m.

Preliminary Matter

Insufficient documents

13The Applicant did not provide the Board all the required documents to conduct a full hearing. The most important documents missing for the hearing are as follows:

a) No document was submitted for the Applicant’s spouse Marylin Morgan residing at the subject property.

b) The Applicant did not provide the Board with the following important documents:

i. Canada Revenue Agency (“CRA”) Notice of Assessment.

ii. Incomplete statements of his Toronto Dominion (“TD”) savings account.

iii. No Credit Card statements. The savings account show that the Applicant is in possession of 3 different credit cards, TD Visa, Walmart Mastercard, and Bank of Montreal Visa.

iv. Redacted account number and account holder’s name in TD Line of Credit statements.

14The Applicant was questioned as to why he did not provide the Board with the required documents for the hearing. Regarding the credit card statements, first he stated that he cancelled the credit cards and later he stated that he just made one payment. The Board notes that in the savings account, payments to all three credit cards were made in 2023 and the last payment to TD credit card was made on December 27, 2023. Later, he stated that he does not have the financial means to obtain statements from the bank.

ANALYSIS

15The Applicant bears the burden of proof to demonstrate that he was unable to pay his property taxes due to sickness or extreme poverty.

16In 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 2023 taxation year, which includes but is not limited to: evidence of income from all sources, evidence of monthly expenses and evidence of all assets and liabilities.

17In R.Q. v. Mississauga (City), [2020] O.A.R.B.D. No. 219, 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.

18In 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 2023 taxation year.

19Furthermore, The City submitted that in response to the Applicant’s filed documents, the Applicant was reminded that he did not provide the City and the Board with sufficient documents prior to the full hearing however, the applicant took no further action in this respect.

20The 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. As mentioned above, he stated that he did not have the financial means to obtain the necessary documents with no further explanation. The Board finds that there is no prospect for preparing the documents should the Board have granted an extension to the Applicant.

ORDER

21The application filed by the Applicant to cancel, reduce or refund his property taxes for the 2023 taxation year, as a result of the Applicant’s inability to pay due to sickness or extreme poverty is dismissed.