Effective Date: March 11, 2025
Announcement 1: Document Submission
The Toronto Local Appeal Body strives to provide dedicated service to the public with the utmost transparency, consistently and efficiently. To promote access to information, we provide links on the Toronto Local Appeal Body’s website to various Acts, Regulations, Legislation, and Bylaws for Appellants, Representatives, Parties and Participants to examine and reference as needed. Those documents can be found on our List of Public Documents page.
For efficiency, the Toronto Local Appeal Body respectfully requests that documents submitted in relation to appeal cases (e.g. disclosure, supporting documents, exhibits, common evidence book, etc.) be no larger than 30 (thirty) megabytes in file size. When submitting said documents and the like with Acts, Regulations, Legislation, and Bylaws to bolster materials, the Toronto Local Appeal Body only requires the specific sections and subsections of those Acts, Regulations, Legislation, and Bylaws, as opposed to entire documents. This presents considerable, undue difficulty for the assigned Panel Member and the public in navigating the detailed information in question, adding to the complexity of reviewing the pre-filed materials.
The Toronto Local Appeal Body reserves the right to refuse documents submitted in excess of the above-referenced maximum for submitted documents and to request an appropriate re-submission of those documents upon review.
You may contact us at (416) 392-4697 or at tlab@toronto.ca for further inquiry about our process and facilitation.
Dino Lombardi
Chair
Effective Date: March 4, 2022
Number: 1
Practice Direction: Standard Consent Conditions
Direction:
In the case of the granting of a consent and in the absence of evidence and a determination to the contrary, TLAB shall impose the standard consent conditions outlined in the Schedule A attached.
Approved by the Toronto Local Appeal Body this 14th day of June, 2017, revised and adopted March 4, 2022.
Dino Lombardi
Chair
Schedule A: Standard Consent Conditions
The Consent Application is Approved on Condition
The TLAB has considered the provisions of Section 51(24) of the Planning Act and is satisfied that a plan of subdivision is not necessary. The TLAB therefore consents to the transaction as shown on the plan filed with the TLAB or as otherwise specified by this Decision and Order, on the condition that before a Certificate of Official is issued, as required by Section 53(42) of the Planning Act, the applicant is to fulfill the following conditions to the satisfaction of the Deputy Secretary-Treasurer of the Committee of Adjustment:
(1) Confirmation of payment of outstanding taxes to the satisfaction of the Revenue Services Division, in the form of a statement of tax account current to within 30 days of an applicant’s request to the Deputy Secretary-Treasurer of the Committee of Adjustment to issue the Certificate of Official as outlined in Condition 6.
(2) Municipal numbers for the subject lots, blocks, parts, or otherwise indicated on the applicable registered reference plan of survey shall be assigned to the satisfaction of the Supervisor, Surveys, Engineering Support Services, Engineering and Construction Services.
(3) One electronic copy of the registered reference plan of survey integrated to NAD 83 CSRS (3 degree Modified Transverse Mercator projection), delineating by separate Parts the lands and their respective areas, shall be filed with, and to the satisfaction of, the Manager, Land and Property Surveys, Engineering Support Services, Engineering and Construction Services.
(4) One electronic copy of the registered reference plan of survey satisfying the requirements of the Manager, Land and Property Surveys, Engineering Support Services, Engineering and Construction Services shall be filed with the Deputy Secretary-Treasurer of the Committee of Adjustment.
(5) Prepare and submit a digital draft of the Certificate of Official, Form 2 or 4, O. Reg. 197/96, referencing either subsection 50(3) or (5) of the Planning Act if applicable as it pertains to the conveyed land and/or consent transaction to the satisfaction of the Deputy Secretary-Treasurer of the Committee of Adjustment.
(6) Once all of the other conditions have been satisfied, the applicant shall request, in writing, that the Deputy Secretary-Treasurer of the Committee of Adjustment issue the Certificate of Official.
(7) Within TWO YEARS of the date of the giving of this notice of decision, the applicant shall comply with the above-noted conditions.
Effective Date: October 11, 2017
Number: 2
Practice Direction: Default Format of Specific Motion Hearings
Direction:
Unless otherwise directed by TLAB, where a Party requests a date to file a Motion for a Written or Electronic Hearing (telephone or video conference) or the adjournment of a Hearing Date, or both, TLAB will treat and require the request to be conducted as a written Motion. The Party will be provided with a date for a Written Hearing motion for service. In the case of a Hearing Date adjournment request, the TLAB shall supply alternative hearing dates and the parties shall indicate their availability for those dates, in the event that the Motion may be granted. The default form of Hearing for these two specific Motion requests will not be Oral, as specified in Rule 17.3. The timeline for Motion responses outlined in the Rules for Motions will apply.
Approved by the Toronto Local Appeal Body this 11TH day of October, 2017.
Ian James Lord
Chair
Effective Date: October 27, 2023
Number: 3 (Revised)
Practice Direction: Document Referencing
Direction:
TLAB staff will take note of official documents or others that are frequently submitted by parties and participants, and will compile a Common Document Base (CDB). This will be listed on the TLAB’s website for use by the public. When parties or participants wish to refer to these in evidence, they should name the document, and provide the sections to which they will refer. These must be specific enough so that a reader can locate the document and find the exact text. This process will apply equally to expert witnesses and lay citizen references if so intend to be made or employed.
If the document or the relevant section is not found in the CDB, the user must provide a detailed reference to the Source, as well as reproduce and distribute the section(s) to be referred to. The Person offering the evidence must address its relevance and accuracy. The TLAB prefers references to the Common Document Base to full digital books.
The Common Document Base will be updated over time as staff identify additional documents of relevance, and a link to those updates will be included on the TLAB website.
Any documents that a party or participant intends to reference or rely upon and that is not already included in the Common Document Base should be assembled by the party or participant into a document collection or volume and filed with the TLAB as a PDF. Any collection of documents or volume filed by a party or participant shall not exceed 250 pages.
A party or participant may file multiple collections of documents or volumes as long as each collection or volume is separately and clearly titled and does not exceed 250 pages.
Any collection of documents or volume shall include a table of contents. Tabs may be used to separate the documents in any collection.
In oral or written submissions, a party or participant shall refer to the title of the document collection and provide the page number of the PDF file where the referenced material can be located.
Approved by the Toronto Local Appeal Body this 27th day of October, 2023.
Dino Lombardi
TLAB Chair
Effective Date: February 10, 2021
Number: 4
Practice Direction: Video Evidence
Direction:
On the approval of the presiding Member, video material that has been disclosed and identified, and served in accordance with the Rules, may be presented at a TLAB hearing. Video evidence must be served by providing the video URL to YouTube or some other video platform which is accessible to the public. The link to the video URL will be posted on the online case file as a PDF, for the public to access.
Persons tendering video material are responsible for ensuring that the video can be played, and is audible.
Approved by the Toronto Local Appeal Body this 10th day of February, 2021.
Dino Lombardi
Chair
Effective Date: October 11, 2017
Number: 5
Practice Direction: Service of Physical Documents for People Who Cannot Communicate Electronically
Direction:
A physical copy of any submission must be served on all Parties who cannot communicate electronically. Likewise, all Parties and Participants who cannot communicate electronically must serve physical copies of any submission on all Parties and TLAB.
The due dates as outlined in TLAB’s Rules of Practice and Procedure continue to apply. As such, service to be on time has to respect delays inherent in service. The Date of Service is deemed to be four (4) days after the date of mailing.
An Affidavit (Form 10) must be completed attesting to the method and timing of service. This must be filed with TLAB in a timely fashion for public posting.
Service requirements under Section 3 of TLAB’s Rules of Practice and Procedure continue to apply for all those with an email address.
Approved by the Toronto Local Appeal Body this 11th day of October, 2017.
Ian James Lord
Chair
Effective Date: May 26, 2020
Number: 6
Practice Direction: Expert Witnesses
Direction:
Who is an Expert?
An expert is a person who may, with approval of the presiding Member, give opinion evidence before the TLAB.
Generally, opinions are not proper evidence in a court or tribunal and thus an expert’s testimony is an exception to this general rule.
Experts do not need to have a particular degree or designation; they do not need to belong to a college or adhere to a formal Code of Conduct, in order to be an expert. An expert may be someone who has relevant:
• Skill;
• Knowledge;
• Training;
• Expertise;
• Certification; and or
• Education
with respect to a matter in issue before the TLAB. To determine whether an expert is needed, the TLAB Member hearing a matter may first consider whether an expert is needed at all. For example, an expert isn’t generally needed for things that would reasonably be expected to be within the knowledge and experience of an average person. If, however, the issue is one which might be outside of a person’s common range of knowledge or experience, and may assist the TLAB in resolving the matter before it, the Member may permit an expert to give his or her opinion to the TLAB.
Qualifying an Expert before the TLAB
Parties are permitted to ask questions of a proposed expert, and to make submissions, prior to an expert being qualified to give expert opinion evidence. An opposing Party might, for instance, wish to ask questions regarding the proposed expert’s qualifications or experience, or make submissions with respect to whether the expert’s proposed testimony is needed at all, in order for the TLAB to justly determine the issues in dispute.
If a Party intends to challenge or raise issues with respect to the impartiality of a proposed expert, or to suggest potential biases, for example, it is good practice to consider providing an opposing Party with advance notice of the intention to do so. This can avoid potential delays and disruption to the process and to the Parties’ expected plan for that day’s appearance before the TLAB.
At the end of this qualification process the TLAB Member will make a decision as to whether to allow the proposed expert to give opinion evidence and will identify and define the expert’s area of expertise for the proceeding.
Expert’s Duties
Experts have certain duties when appearing before the TLAB. These are expressed in the TLAB’s Acknowledgement of Expert’s Duty Form, which must be signed and dated by each proposed expert, prior to appearing before the TLAB.
The duties of an expert include:
• Providing evidence that is fair, objective and non-partisan;
• Providing opinion evidence that is related only to the matters that are within his or her expertise; and,
• Providing such additional assistance as the TLAB may reasonably require to determine a matter in issue.
And, when asked by a Member to provide additional information by way of undertaking, experts should fulfill such undertakings to the best of their abilities, forthwith.
An expert is not deployed to tell a TLAB Member how to rule on an issue. Rather, the expert is tendered by a Party in order to assist a Member in understanding technical or difficult matters outside of one’s expected breadth and depth of knowledge or experience. An expert is therefore expected to render his or her opinion in an unbiased, dispassionate, helpful, and assistive manner. They are not “hired guns”.
Local Knowledge Experts?
Before the TLAB certain persons have, from time to time, been recognized as “local knowledge experts”. This is not a traditional field of expertise like planning, or hydrogeology, for example. Persons with significant experience in a particular local area of the City of Toronto can, in appropriate circumstances, be qualified as an expert. For instance, a person may have significant knowledge of an area’s history, its people, or other facets of the community that are relevant to an issue before the TLAB.
Provided these persons can provide expert, non-partisan, dispassionate, helpful and relevant facts to the TLAB Member, they may be qualified as an expert.
How Much Weight is Given to Experts?
It is always up to the TLAB Member hearing from a qualified expert to decide how much weight he or she is going to accord the evidence. Factors that might impact the weight given to an expert’s testimony could be its usefulness or relevance to the issues in dispute, any detected bias, or the evidence’s quality, when compared to the evidence of other witnesses.
Experts are not necessarily accorded “extra” weight simply because they are experts; however, nor is an expert’s evidence simply to be discounted, either. Each Member must turn his or her mind to this issue, with respect to every witness – lay or expert.
Summonsing an Expert
There may be times when a Party wishes to summons (formally require) a potential expert witness to attend before the TLAB. In rare instances where it is not reasonable for the summonsing Party to obtain an Expert Witness Statement prior to that witness’ expected attendance (because, for example, the summonsed witness is adverse in interest to the summonsing Party) a Party may dispense with the requirement to serve and file an Expert Witness Statement. A summonsing Party, however, must still comply with the Rules relating to summonsing, including the requirement to set out in a Request to Summons the issues and evidence the witness is expected to address, and explain the relevance of that evidence with respect to the issues in dispute.
Consider the Following
While not required, the following things are worth considering, when potentially hiring an Expert:
Share an Expert (i.e. Joint Expert(s))
Parties may wish to consider whether there is an opportunity to “share” an expert. There may be times where assistance on a technical or scientific matter, for instance, will be of equal importance to one or perhaps all Parties. Nothing prevents Parties from agreeing to jointly tender an expert, when doing so will assist the Parties, and assist the TLAB, in arriving at a just conclusion of the matters in dispute.
Narrow the Issues in Dispute
Parties may wish to consider whether having their proposed experts meet might result in a narrowing of the total number of issues in dispute. Alternatively, Parties may wish to have their experts discuss whether certain facts can be agreed upon, and discuss where their divergence in expert opinion occurs. Doing so can sometimes result in a shorter, more focused and efficient hearing.
Effective Date: June 15, 2022
Number: 7
Practice Direction: Late Filings
Direction:
The TLAB’s Rules and the filing deadlines set out in Notices of Hearing are firm. However, materials are sometimes filed after a deadline set out in a Notice of Hearing has passed but before the start of the hearing.
The Late filing may compromise TLAB procedures of fairness and are to be discouraged, and will only be permitted under justifiable circumstances.
Any materials filed after the deadline set out in a Notice of Hearing must be served on all Parties and Participants.
Any filing made after the deadline set out in a Notice of Hearing will be posted with all other evidentiary submissions but will be marked “LATE” by TLAB staff.
Applicant’s Disclosure filed after the deadline set out in a Notice of Hearing may be admitted into the record with the consent of all Parties.
If the Party files the Applicant’s Disclosure after the deadline set out in a Notice of Hearing without the consent of all Parties, the Party must advise the presiding Member at the start of the hearing and request that the late filed Applicant’s Disclosure be admitted into the record.
In general, save for extenuating circumstances, minimal non-prejudicial delay or where consented to by other Parties, the late filed Applicant’s Disclosure will not be admitted into the record.
The presiding Member has the discretion under the TLAB’s Rules and under the Statutory Powers Procedure Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. S.22, to admit or refuse to admit late filed materials.
The presiding Member also has the discretion to order or to hear a motion to determine whether the Applicant’s Disclosure that was filed after a deadline shall be admitted into the record.
A request to admit into the record materials that were filed after a deadline shall not be made outside the hearing.
A Party or Participant can request the opportunity to file additional materials in response to materials that were filed after a deadline and have been admitted into the record by the presiding Member.
Effective Date: March 28, 2025
Number: 8
Practice Direction: Protocol for Filing Revised Plans and Other Requirements After a Hearing
Direction:
Where any documents, plans or materials are to be submitted to the Toronto Local Appeal Body (TLAB) following the conclusion of a Hearing, whether by reason of an undertaking of a Party during the Proceeding or at the direction of the TLAB, they shall be submitted to the TLAB and to such other Persons as have been identified by the undertaking or the direction of the TLAB within the time stipulated by the Party or by the TLAB or at such later date as may have been requested by the Party and authorized by the TLAB. Failure of timely submission shall not prevent the TLAB from proceeding and rendering a final disposition of the matter before it.
Effective Date: March 28, 2025
Number: 9
Practice Direction: Protocol for Withdrawal of an Appeal before the Toronto Local Appeal Body
Direction:
From time to time, an Appellant who appeals to the Toronto Local Appeal Body (TLAB) a decision of the City of Toronto Committee of Adjustment may, prior to a Hearing being held by the TLAB, wish to abandon that appeal matter. This Practice Direction is intended to clarify the obligations in that regard.
In the event that an Appellant wishes to abandon an appeal, the Appellant personally, or by way of a representative with authority, must contact the TLAB in writing to inform of their request to withdraw the Appeal using unequivocal language. In that correspondence, the Appellant must state that: the withdrawal is unconditional; there are
no other outstanding appeals; and all matters related to s. 45 and/or s. 53 of the Planning Act under appeal are incorporated in the withdrawal.
Once this has been received by the TLAB and these issues confirmed, The TLAB will then issue a Decision and Order dismissing the appeal, confirming the Committee of Adjustment decision in the first instance as final and binding, and closing the TLAB file.