“Section 7 of the Guidelines defines “special or extraordinary expenses”. The relevant portions of the section provide:
(1) In a child support order the court may, on either spouse’s request, provide for an amount to cover all or any portion of the following expenses, which expenses may be estimated, taking into account the necessity of the expense in relation to the child’s best interests and the reasonableness of the expense in relation to the means of the spouses and those of the child and to the family’s spending pattern prior to the separation:
…
(e) expenses for post-secondary education; and
(f) extraordinary expenses for extracurricular activities.
In Titova v. Titov, 2012 ONCA 864, at para. 23, Rouleau J.A. set out the correct approach to be taken by a court under s. 7:
In awarding s. 7 special and extraordinary expenses, the trial judge calculates each party’s income for child support purposes, determines whether the claimed expenses fall within one of the enumerated categories of s. 7 of the Guidelines, determines whether the claimed expenses are necessary “in relation to the child’s best interests” and are reasonable “in relation to the means of the spouses and those of the child and to the family’s spending pattern prior to the separation.” If the expenses fall under s. 7(1)(d) or (f) of the Guidelines, the trial judge determines whether the expenses are “extraordinary”. Finally, the court considers what amount, if any, the child should reasonably contribute to the payment of these expenses and then applies any tax deductions or credits.
No issue has been raised by Ms. Craig with Mr. Niro’s position that the parties’ pro rata shares should be the same as those set out in the July 2019 order or that anything other than the incomes upon which the October 2020 order was based should be used to decide the s. 7 issues.
Rather, Ms. Craig submits that neither the son’s moving expenses nor the daughter’s hockey expenses are extraordinary. With respect to the son’s expenses, however, this is irrelevant. As s. 7 itself and the excerpt set out above make clear, there is no requirement that post-secondary education expenses be extraordinary. Nonetheless, to qualify as a post-secondary education expense, the expense must be sufficiently connected to the program of study. In my view, that can only be true where the expense in question is not one that would otherwise have been incurred.
On this basis, I have no difficulty concluding that the expenses associated with the purchase of furniture, appliances, food, toiletries and even “shower flip flops” are all properly characterized as post-secondary education expenses for a temporary residence being shared with someone else while at university. The same can be said for the cost of a hotel room for a night or two while a student’s belongings are being moved into a temporary residence and for restaurant meals while this is being done.”