and, they are expected to abide by a management plan approved by the Court,
there is little in the way of supervision of Court appointed guardians.
To be appointed a guardian or to have someone else appointed guardian of an
individual, it is necessary to bring an application before the Superior Court of
Justice for an order declaring the person in question incapable of managing their
property or personal care (or both) and appointing the applicant guardian of
property and/or of the person. Applicants must provide evidence that the person
for whom the guardianship is sought is actually incapable of making the relevant
decisions themselves and that a guardian is required to protect the person from
harm.^20 Pursuant to s. 22(3) of the SDA, the Court should not appoint a guardian
if the need for decisions to be made can be met by an alternative course of
action that does not require the court to find the person to be incapable of
managing their property or personal care and is less restrictive of the person’s
decision making rights than the appointment of a guardian.
Family members of the ‘incapable person’ are to be served with the motion
materials and allowed to participate in the court process if they wish.^21 The PGT
is a ‘statutory” party to the proceeding and must be served with materials. The
PGT may play a fairly passive role in the court proceedings. However, the PGT
usually sends a letter to the applicant and the court advising them of the PGT’s
opinion based on a review of the material presented to the Court.^22 The PGT
usually asks the Court to issue an order requiring the payment by the Applicant
of a $250.00 fee to the PGT for reviewing the file.
Unless there is some formal objection raised to the appointment of a guardian,
either because there are concerns about the particular applicant becoming
guardian or there are doubts about the need for a guardian, the court generally
(^20) For more details see Substitute Decisions Act, 1992, Part III.
(^21) See Substitute Decisions Act, 1992, s 69(6).
(^22) See Substitute Decisions Act, 1992, s 69(1) and (3).