“The doctrine of proprietary estoppel applies when the following conditions are present (Cowper-Smith v. Morgan, 2017 SCC 61, [2017] 2 S.C.R. 754, at para. 15):
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- a representation or assurance is made to the claimant, on the basis of which the claimant expects that he will enjoy some right or benefit over property;
- the claimant relies on that expectation by doing or refraining from doing something, and his reliance is reasonable in all of the circumstances; and
- the claimant suffers a detriment as a result of his reasonable reliance, such that it would be unfair or unjust for the party responsible for the representation or assurance to go back on her word and insist on her strict legal rights.
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Like all estoppels, proprietary estoppel protects against the “inequity of allowing the other party to resile from his statement where it has been relied upon to the detriment of the person to whom it was directed”: Trial Lawyers Association of British Columbia v. Royal & Sun Alliance Insurance Company of Canada, 2021 SCC 47, [2021] 3 SCR 490, at para. 16, quoting Fort Frances v. Boise Cascade Canada Ltd., 1983 CanLII 47 (SCC), [1983] 1 S.C.R. 171, at p. 202.”