Former Raptors boss Nick Nurse suing the Ontario government for $697,000 After extending an olive branch to the province for the last couple of years, Nurse and his wife are taking the province to court for the money. Author of the article:Gordon Anderson Published Aug 11, 2026 • 2 minute read 15 Comments
Former Raptors boss Nick Nurse suing the Ontario government for $697,000
After extending an olive branch to the province for the last couple of years, Nurse and his wife are taking the province to court for the money.
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When former Raptors head coach Nick Nurse left the squad for the Philadelphia 76ers in 2023, the government of Ontario slapped him with a near $700,000 parting gift.
The Ministry of Finance rejected Nurse’s application for a rebate of the $697,500 Non-Resident Speculation Tax (NRST) that he and his wife had previously paid on their $4.65-million Mississauga home.
The NRST is a 25% tax applied to the purchase price of a residential property by a foreign national. A foreign national is defined as an individual who is not a citizen or permanent resident.
After extending an olive branch to the province for the last couple of years, Nurse and his wife are taking the province to court for the money.
“It’s been quite frustrating for them,” Mike Collinge told the National Post. “The ministry, at the administrative level, is yet to really articulate a reasonable basis for their position.”
Collinge is a Toronto-based partner at Deloitte Legal Canada LLP, and is acting on behalf of the Nurses.
Nurse and his wife bought their Mississauga home in October of 2021, paying the $697,000 NRST tax levy, on top of the $4.65 million purchase price.
When the couple bought the home, the NRST levy was 15% in the Greater Golden Horseshoe Region. Since then, the rate has increased to its current 25%.
Requirement not met
Finance regulations at the time allowed foreign buyers to claim a rebate of their NRST, provided they were in good standing with the rules. Namely, the property was their principal residence for at least 60 days, and Nurse had worked in Ontario for at least a year.
Nurse was fired by the Raptors on April 21, 2023. The 76ers hired Nurse on May 29. He has been with Philadelphia ever since.
After selling the property in September 2023, the couple applied for their rebate in March 2024, only to have it rejected a month later.
Ontario’s Ministry of Finance said that the Nurses did not qualify because they did not live in the house up to the date when they applied for the rebate.
“I think it’s a case where they changed the law after Mr. Nurse made his rebate application and then they’re reading a requirement into the law retroactively when the legislation itself was not retroactive,” Collinge says.
– With files from Postmedia
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