Family
Federal Divorce Act over provincial property and Quebec's separate regime
Family law is split. Parliament legislates divorce, and the Divorce Act as amended in 2021 replaced custody and access with parenting orders and decision-making responsibility, while requiring the court to decide by reference to the best interests of the child. Division of property on breakdown is provincial: Ontario equalises net family property, and Quebec applies the family patrimony rules of the Civil Code.
Key rules
- Jurisdiction — Divorce and corollary relief are federal; property division, adoption and unmarried couples are provincial
- Deadline — Divorce on separation: available after one year of living apart
- Deadline — Ontario equalisation claim: within six years of separation or two years of divorce
- Deadline — Relocation of a child: 60 days' written notice to the other parent
Governing law
- Divorce Act, RSC 1985, c. 3 (2nd Supp), as amended by SC 2019, c. 16
- Family Law Act (Ontario), RSO 1990, c. F.3
- Civil Code of Québec (arts. 414 to 426 (family patrimony))
- Federal Child Support Guidelines, SOR/97-175
In practice
Quebec is the sharpest outlier: it does not recognise any property or support regime for de facto spouses, so a couple who never married may separate after decades with no claim on each other's assets, a result the Supreme Court upheld in Quebec v A. Elsewhere, provinces including British Columbia treat spouses who have cohabited two years much like married ones for property purposes.