Case information

Taxation — Exemption from property tax — Place of worship — Land owned by a “religious organization” that is “a place of worship and the land used in connection with it” is exempt from property tax — Application for declaration to have certain properties exempt from municipal taxation dismissed — Whether lower courts erred in their reasoning and decisions — Whether application for leave to appeal raises issues of national or public importance — Assessment Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. A.31, s. 3(1), para. 3(i)

Case summaries are prepared by the Office of the Registrar of the Supreme Court of Canada (Law Branch). Please note that summaries are not provided to the Judges of the Court. They are placed on the Court file and website for information purposes only.

The applicant, Fung Loy Kok Institute of Taoism (“FLK”) is a religious organization that owns a number of properties across Ontario. Under the Assessment Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. A.31, s. 3(1), para. 3(i), land owned by a “religious organization” that is “a place of worship and the land used in connection with it” is exempt from property tax. However, the Act does not define what is meant by “place of worship”. The second applicant, the Taoist Tai Chi Society of Canada is a related entity that previously owned some of FLK’s properties.

The respondent, the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation is a non profit corporation responsible for assessing and classifying all properties in Ontario in compliance with the Act.

The central dispute in this appeal is whether the activities that FLK conducts on some of its properties, and, in particular, the tai chi classes that it holds at its various “satellite sites”, renders each of these properties “a place of worship” for the purposes of the Act.

The application judge found that the disputed properties were not places of worship, and the Divisional Court upheld that conclusion. The Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal.