Family law (Ontario) legislation: Net Family Property. Net Family Property provides a formula for determining the value of what each spouse owns on a particular date, called the “valuation date,” which in most cases is the date of the parties’ final separation. Once the formula is applied, each spouse is assigned a Net Family Property, which is a dollar value, and “equalization” refers to the comparison of the two dollar values in order to calculate the difference (if any). The spouse with the lesser value is entitled to ½ of the difference between that value and the other spouse’s. A spouse’s Net Family Property cannot be less than zero.
Family law (Ontario) legislation: unequal equalization. The process of determining entitlement is referred to as “equalization” and, if it results in either more or less than ½ of the difference being awarded, the result is an “unequal equalization.” This may happen in situations where the statutory criteria for imposing an “unequal equalization” are met. Situations of this nature may be common, but the criteria are difficult to meet. The criteria involve factors such as reckless depletion of assets, purposeful family-benefitting debt-creation, and short-term marriages.