CITATION: Lengyel v. Ontario Assessment Review Board, 2023 ONSC 1959
DIVISIONAL COURT FILE NO.: 22-454 DATE: 20230323
ONTARIO SUPERIOR COURT OF JUSTICE DIVISIONAL COURT
Ellies R.S.J., Backhouse and Lederer JJ.
BETWEEN:
GABRIELLA LENGYEL
Self-represented Applicant
Applicant
– and –
ONTARIO ASSESSMENT REVIEW BOARD and CITY OF TORONTO
Valerie Crystal, for the Respondent, Ontario Assessment Review Board
Graham Thomson, for the Respondent, City of Toronto
Respondents
HEARD at Toronto: March 23, 2023
ELLIES R.S.J. (Orally)
[1] The Applicant, Ms. Lengyel, seeks to review a decision of the Assessment Review Board ("the Board”) in which it dismissed her application under s. 323 of the City of Toronto Act, 2006, S.O. 2006, c. 11, Sched. A ("the Act"). Under that section, the city treasurer has the power to cancel, reduce or refund Ms. Lengyel’s property taxes on the basis of sickness or extreme poverty. Those powers have been lawfully delegated to the Board.
[2] Ms. Lengyel’s application pertained to the taxes for the taxation years 2015 and 2017. She asks this court not only to reverse the Board’s decision with respect to those taxation years, but also to order the refund of all property taxes paid or payable for the years 2011 to the present.
[3] We have no authority to do that. We can only review the decision made by the Board, which we have done. Our task is to determine if that decision was reasonable, if it was made fairly, and if it was made within the Board’s jurisdiction. We have concluded that it was.
[4] We do not accept the applicant’s submission that it was procedurally unfair to bring her application back on for a hearing, nor that her disability was not accommodated in the hearing process. Ms. Lengyel points to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (“the Charter”) and the Human Rights Code (“the Code”). However, we fail to see how the Charter or the Code have any application in these circumstances. The matter had been outstanding for a long period of time and the Board accommodated Ms. Lengyel by conducting the hearing in writing. She fully participated in the hearing by filing a very voluminous record which was thoroughly reviewed by the Board.
[5] The Board was correct in its decision that it did not have the jurisdiction to grant relief under s. 323 for any taxation years other than the 2015 and 2017 taxation years. The jurisdiction under s. 323 of the Act is limited to applications for relief filed on or before the statutory deadline. The Board has no power to extend the deadline, nor does it have the power to exempt payors from paying property taxes. As such, the Board correctly restricted itself to the applicant’s request for relief in the taxation years for which she had filed the application, being 2015 and 2017.
[6] Finally, the Board’s decision with respect to those years was reasonable. The Board had three issues before it to be determined:
(1) Was the applicant unable to pay her 2015 and 2017 taxes?
(2) If so, was she unable to pay them due to sickness or extreme poverty?
(3) If so, what amount of property taxes should be cancelled, reduced, or refunded?
[7] The Board dismissed Ms. Lengyel’s application based on the first issue. The Board concluded, based in part on the fact that the 2015 and 2017 taxes had been paid by the applicant’s lawyers, that she had failed to satisfy the Board that they could not be paid. There is nothing unreasonable in that conclusion.
[8] For these reasons, the application is dismissed.
COSTS
[9] In the circumstances, neither responding party seeking costs, there will be no order as to costs.
___________________________ Ellies R.S.J.
I agree
Backhouse J.
I agree
Lederer J.
Date of Oral Reasons for Judgment: March 23, 2023
Date of Written Release: March 31, 2023
CITATION: Lengyel v. Ontario Assessment Review Board, 2023 ONSC 1959
DIVISIONAL COURT FILE NO.: 22-454 DATE: 20230323
ONTARIO
SUPERIOR COURT OF JUSTICE
DIVISIONAL COURT
RSJ Ellies, Backhouse and Lederer JJ.
BETWEEN:
GABRIELLA LENGYEL
Applicant
– and –
ONTARIO ASSESSMENT REVIEW BOARD and THE CITY OF TORONTO
Respondents
ORAL REASONS FOR JUDGMENT
ELLIES R.S.J.
Date of Oral Reasons for Judgment: March 23, 2023
Date of Written Release: March 31, 2023