“The SSAG are a useful tool in calculating the appropriate amount and the duration of spousal support. Neither counsel provided this court with that information. Nevertheless, as pointed out in Fisher v. Fisher, 2008 ONCA 11 (CanLII), 88 O.R. (3d) 241, at para. 98:
[The SSAG] suggest a range of both amount and duration of support that reflects the current law. Because they purport to represent a distillation of current case law, they are comparable to counsel’s submissions about an appropriate range of support based on applicable jurisprudence.
This court in Fisher continued at paras. 102-103:
Now that [the SSAG] are available to provide what is effectively a “range” within which the awards in most cases of this kind should fall, it may be that if a particular award is substantially lower or higher than the range and there are no exceptional circumstances to explain the anomaly, the standard of review should be reformulated to permit appellate intervention.
At para. 97 of Fisher, this court cautioned that the SSAG “must be considered in context and applied in their entirety”: see also Mason v. Mason, 2016 ONCA 725 (CanLII), at para. 121. At para. 109 of Fisher, this court pointed out that “[a]mount and duration are interrelated parts of the formula – they are a package deal. Using one part of the formula without the other would undermine its integrity and coherence.”
In the recently released Spousal Support Advisory Guidelines: The Revised User’s Guide (Ottawa: Department of Justice Canada, 2016), Rogerson and Thompson again remind courts to remember duration. Section 3(e) states, “[d]uration is often forgotten in the SSAG analysis. The formulas generate ranges for amount and duration. Amount cannot be considered alone.”