How to assess loss of dependency in a motor vehicle accident?

A precise formula for exercising that business judgment has proven elusive. Innumerable authorities have considered how to approach the assessment of the loss of dependency. Many were cited to us. One of the most succinct statements of the basis for awarding compensation under fatal accident legislation is that of Cartwright J. in Proctor v. Dyck, 1953 CanLII 6 (SCC), [1953] 1 S.C.R. 244 at 249: To entitle a claimant to damages under the Fatal Accidents Act it is not essential that he should have been financially dependent upon the deceased or that the deceased should have been under any legal liability to provide for him or that he should have enjoyed any benefits from the deceased in his lifetime. It is sufficient if it is shown that the claimant had a reasonable expectation of deriving pecuniary advantage from the deceased’s remaining alive which has been disappointed by his death.