investments, maintain real estate and ensure the grantor’s bills are paid, subject
to any restrictions or limitations the grantor may have outlined in the power of
attorney document.
An attorney for personal care can make decisions about where a person lives,
the type of medical or physical care they receive, whether the grantor enters a
long-term care facility, and the basic organization of the grantors’ day to day
activities and personal affairs.^9
A power of attorney for property can take effect the minute it is signed, unless the
document contains specific instructions about when it comes into effect, under
what circumstances and for how long. Often, however, when intended to deal
with future incapacity, a power of attorney document will stipulate that it comes
into effect only after the grantor has been declared incapable of making decisions
about their property. To serve this purpose, the document must state that it is a
“continuing power of attorney”. Since only a “continuing power of attorney” can
survive the incapacity of the grantor.^10
It is more difficult to predict exactly when an attorney for personal care must
begin making personal care or medical decisions on behalf of the grantor. A
power of attorney for personal care is best seen as a reactive document. In most
cases an attorney for personal care will be asked to make a specific decision by
a health care professional who has concluded that the grantor is no longer
capable to make a particular treatment decision. In other cases, s. 49 of the SDA
applies to allow an attorney for personal care to make particular decisions once
the attorney has reasonable grounds to believe that the grantor is incapable of
making that particular decision. Often the attorney will be expected to take on the
(^9) For more detail see Jasmine Sweatman, Guide to Powers of Attorney, (Canada Law Book,
2002) at Chapter 4, 97- 10 155.
See Substitute Decisions Act, 1992, SO 1992. c 30, s 7(1).