“Section 131 of the Courts of Justice Act provides that subject to the provisions of an Act or Rules of Court, costs are in the discretion of the court, which may determine by whom and to what extent the costs shall be paid. This section must be read in conjunction with Rules 24 and 18 of the Family Law Rules, which set out numerous principles to guide the court in the exercise of its discretion in the family law context.
The modern rules respecting costs aim to foster the following four fundamental purposes: (a) to partially indemnity successful litigants for the cost of litigation; (b) to encourage settlement; (c) to discourage and sanction inappropriate behaviour by litigants; and (d) to ensure that cases are dealt with justly in accordance with the primary objective of the Family Law Rules set out in Rule 2(2). See: Ryan v. McGregor (1926), 1925 CanLII 460 (ON SCAD), 58 O.L.R. 213 (Ont. C.A.), at p. 216; British Columbia (Minister of Forests) v. Okanagan Indian Band, 2003 SCC 71 (CanLII), [2003] 3 S.C.R. 371 (S.C.C.); Fong v. Chan, 1999 CanLII 2052 (ON CA), 1999 CarswellOnt 3955, 181 D.L.R. (4th) 614, 46 O.R. (3d) 330 (C.A.); Serra v. Serra, 2009 ONCA 395 (C.A.) and Mattina v. Mattina, 2018 ONCA 867 (C.A.)).”