A. INTRODUCTION
At any given time, laws regarding legal capacity, decision-making and guardianship affect tens of thousands of Ontarians. Persons directly affected by these laws may be living in long-term care homes, retirement homes, group homes, hospitals, psychiatric facilities or the community. Those affected may have temporary acute illnesses or chronic conditions. They may be living with addictions, mental health disabilities, acquired brain injuries, dementia, aphasia, developmental or intellectual disabilities, or many other types of disabilities.
These laws also affect tens of thousands of families and caregivers, as well as thousands of professionals, service providers, and institutions, financial institutions, health and social service professionals, hospitals and retirement homes, lawyers, governments, countless community agencies, and many others.
Most Ontarians will, at some point in their personal or professional lives, encounter this area of the law.
This Final Report concludes an extensive, multi-year Law Commission of Ontario (LCO) project reviewing Ontario’s statutory framework for legal capacity, decisionmaking and guardianship. The project has examined issues related to concepts of legal capacity and decision-making, the use and misuse of powers of attorney, and appointment and dispute resolution processes, among other issues. It builds on the principles and considerations identified in the LCO’s two Frameworks for the law as it affects older adults and the law as it affects persons with disabilities,1 as well as taking
into account what was learned from the project on Capacity and Legal Representation for the Federal RDSP.2 The LCO has brought to this project its holistic, multidisciplinary approach to law reform, and its commitment to open and transparent processes and to broad public consultation.
This report is the culmination of the most comprehensive process in the LCO’s history. The project began with wide-ranging scoping interviews in early 2013 and the commissioning of several expert papers. In June 2014, the LCO released a comprehensive Discussion Paper3 and Summary of Consultation Issues.4 The subsequent public consultations allowed us to hear from hundreds of Ontarians, including private individuals, experts and institutional stakeholders. In January 2016, we released for feedback an Interim Report5 with draft recommendations.
Ontario has a comprehensive and relatively coordinated statutory scheme related to legal capacity and decision-making, resulting from a thorough and thoughtful law reform process in the late 1980s and early 1990s.6 The foundations underlying the current law, of maximizing autonomy and reducing intervention, empowering families, and providing a “safety net” against exploitation and abuse of persons with impaired decision-making abilities, remain largely sound. However, much has changed since these laws came into effect, including evolving understandings of legal needs and of the rights of persons with disabilities and older persons, substantial social and demographic changes, and an ever more complex service delivery landscape. The LCO’s work revealed significant challenges in ensuring effective access to the law, providing a wide enough range of options to meet the diverse needs of those directly affected, and providing coordinated approaches across the system.
The LCO’s approach to reform has focussed on promoting the principles underlying the Framework projects, recognizing the diversity of needs and experiences among those directly affected and among stakeholders, acknowledging and responding to complexity, and building on the strengths of Ontario’s existing laws, policies and institutions. The central priorities for reform have been reducing unnecessary and inappropriate intervention in the lives of individuals, improving access to the law, and enhancing the clarity and coordination of the law. These priorities are advanced through 58 recommendations which would, if implemented, widen the range of options available to individuals, promote access to education and information, strengthen safeguards against abuse, enhance procedural protections, and support more meaningful rights enforcement and dispute resolution. The LCO believes that this approach builds on the strengths of the current system while responding to contemporary needs, and provides a strong foundation for the ongoing evolution of this area of the law.
The LCO’s review of Ontario’s statutory regime for legal capacity, decision-making and guardianship has raised many challenging issues for which there are no straightforward solutions. While consultations have indicated broad support for the general thrust of the LCO’s approach, it is inevitable that not all will agree with all recommendations. The LCO believes that these recommendations strike a careful balance between competing needs and perspectives and would significantly enhance the ability of Ontario’s legal framework in this area to maximize self-determination, provide safeguards for those who are vulnerable, and provide effective and meaningful options for the diverse array of individuals and stakeholders who encounter it every day.
B. SCOPE, NEEDS AND PRIORITIES FOR REFORM
1. Project Scope
The project addresses the following six issues:
- The standard for legal capacity, including tests for capacity and the various avenues and mechanisms for assessing capacity under the Substitute Decisions Act, 1992 (SDA), Health Care Consent Act, 1996 (HCCA) and Mental Health Act (MHA);
- Decision–making models, including an examination of the desirability and practical implications of alternatives to substitute decision-making, including supported and co-decision-making;
- Processes for appointments (for example, of substitute decision-makers), whether through personal appointments or a public process, with a focus on appropriate use and on improving efficiency and accessibility;
- The roles and responsibilities of guardians and other substitute decision- makers, including potential for more limited forms of guardianship and consideration of options for those who do not have family or friends to assist them;
- Monitoring, accountability and prevention of abuse for substitute decision- makers or supporters, however appointed, and of misuse by third party service providers, including mechanisms for increasing transparency, identifying potential abuse and ensuring compliance with the requirements of the law; and
- Dispute resolution, including reforms to increase the accessibility, effectiveness and efficiency of current mechanisms.
The scope of this project was determined through the LCO’s prelimina