Who pays for a formal capacity assessment under Ontario's Substitute Decisions Act?

Who pays for a capacity assessment depends on the circumstances that triggered it. Where a family member or another interested person arranges a private assessment — for example, to support a guardianship application or to address a specific concern — that person or the family generally arranges and pays the assessor's fee directly, since capacity assessors set their own individual rates for this specialized work rather than charging a fixed, government-set amount.

Where an assessment is connected to a court proceeding, the cost can sometimes become part of the overall costs of that proceeding, potentially recoverable from the incapable person's own property or addressed as part of a broader costs order, depending on how the court treats it in the circumstances. Because there's no standard, government-set fee for a capacity assessment, and costs can vary significantly between assessors and the complexity of the assessment needed, it's worth asking a prospective assessor directly about their fee before arranging an assessment, and discussing with a lawyer how the cost might ultimately be allocated if the matter proceeds to a court application.