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RHA - Definition - 'Retirement Home'. Retirement Homes Regulatory Authority v. Moore
In Retirement Homes Regulatory Authority v. Moore (Ont CA, 2024) the Ontario Court of Appeal dismisses an appeal "to cease operating an unlicensed retirement home", here focussing on the 'definition' of a retirement home:[3] The appellants argue that the application judge erred in finding that they were operating an unlicenced retirement home contrary to s. 33 of the Act, because, in their submission, St. Jacobs Country Living does not meet the Act’s definition of a “retirement home”. The statutory definition of a “retirement home” in s. 2(1) is met only if the residential complex at issue is occupied by at least six persons, who are primarily over 65 and unrelated to the operator of the home, and the operator “makes at least two care services available, directly or indirectly, to the residents.” ....
[4] First, although the appellants conceded before the application judge that more than one of the enumerated “care services” was provided to one occupant of the building, R.W., a person with quadriplegia, they submit that R.W. did not reside in the same residential complex as the other residents, but in an “Outside Part” that is separate from them, with its own entrance and no direct access to the main areas of St. Jacobs Country Living. They submit that the application judge therefore erred in treating R.W. as a resident of the residential complex that is at issue.
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[7] With respect to whether R.W. was a resident of the same residential complex as the other residents, the appellants point to no palpable and overriding errors in the application judge’s decision. His conclusion that she was a resident of the same residential complex as the other residents is amply supported by the fact that R.W. was serviced by the same staff who were simultaneously servicing the other occupants of St. Jacobs Country Living. On the evidence, there was simply no administrative separation between the delivery of care to R.W. and the other residents. The only distinction the application judge discerned on the evidence was the physical separation between them. Although a physical separation within a building can be indicative of separate residence, it is not conclusive. Based on the record before him the application judge was entitled to come to the decision that he did.
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