“The obligation to pay support commences from the date of separation. The court may provide retroactive child support to compensate for any deficit where a parent has failed to assume his or her fair share of the child support obligation, particularly where there is no evidence to indicate that the payor did not have the ability to pay during the relevant period. (Schmuck v. Reynolds-Schmuck (1999), 1999 CanLII 15000 (ON SC), 50 R.F.L. (4th) 429).
The factors to be considered by the court in ordering a retroactive support award, are the reasonableness of delay in seeking support, conduct of the payor, circumstances of the child and hardship occasioned by a retroactive award. (D.B.S. v. F.R.G.; L.J.W. v. T.A.R.; Henry v. Henry; Heimstra v. Heimstra, 2006 SCC 37 (CanLII), [2006] S.C.J. No. 37)).”