Overview of new legislation 2022: how it will affect you

You are co-holder of an account with your spouse or ex-spouse?

According to the Act respecting remittance of deposits of money to account co-holders who are spouses or former spouses, a financial institution must, upon the death of one of the spouses or ex-spouses, remit to the surviving co-holder his or her share of the balance of such an account. In case of death, the joint account is therefore no longer entirely frozen, which alleviates the financial stress felt by the surviving spouse who may not have access to other money.

The Act came into force on December 8, 2022 and applies to both new accounts opened after that date and existing accounts.

Determination of shares: The remittance will be made according to the written declaration made by the account holders. If no declaration has been made, the shares will be presumed to be equal. If your shares in the joint account are unequal, be sure to submit this written declaration to your financial institution. It can be submitted when opening the joint account or afterwards.

The Civil Code was also amended to specify that this remittance of the share of the account belonging to the surviving co-holder does not mean that the surviving spouse accepts the succession. (Article 643.1 C.C.Q.) It should also be noted that the change does not apply in cases of incapacity, which will continue to pose certain problems for persons affected by such a situation.

Non-gender identifiers on civil status documents

1. “Non-binary” identifier

   An article was added to the Civil Code of Québec (article 70.1 C.C.Q.) providing that the identifiers “male,” “female” or “non-binary” will appear on birth and death certificates to identify the sex of each person. These will be represented by the letter symbols “M”, “F” or “X”.^[1]

2. Name for the family relationship

   To take into account the different realities of sex and gender, the Civil Code of Québec has also added a third name for the bond of filiation. In addition to the usual terms “father” and “mother,” the new non-gender term “parent” is available to characterize this bond.

Bonds of filiation to be determined

1. Assisted procreation

   According to the provisions of the new Act, the court may establish the filiation of a child born as a result of assisted procreation which takes place after the death of one of the parents. (Article 535.2 C.C.Q)

2. De facto spouses

   The Act also includes a presumption of paternity for any child born during a de facto union, or within 300 days after the dissolution of the de facto union. (Article 114 C.C.Q.) This presumption previously existed only for persons who were married or in a civil union. The Act now extends it to all de facto spouses, thus officially recognizing the filiation rights of all children born of these unions.

Minor child in need of legal aid

Legal aid will now be available free of charge to a minor child, and it will be available to them regardless of their financial eligibility.

[1] According to the Règlement relatif à l’ajout d’une mention de l’identité de genre au changement de certaines qualités de l’état civil et à la substitution du prénom usuel

Protection mandate

Since November 1, 2022, An Act to amend the Civil Code, the Code of Civil Procedure, the Public Curator Act and various provisions as regards the protection of persons (Bill 11) has made significant changes concerning the protection mandate:

• The mandatary named in a protection mandate is required to draw up an inventory of the property of the incapable person within 60 days following the homologation of the mandate. It will thus be easier to know the value and composition of the assets of the incapable person from the start and to note any changes to these assets during the execution of the mandate.
• The mandatary also has to render an account to a person designated in the mandate to receive such accounts at least every three years.
• In the absence of a protection mandate, protective supervision in the form of advisorship to a person of full age has been replaced by two new simplified assistance measures:
  • Assistance measure – If you are less independent, you can submit a request to the Public Curator to approve a request for assistance and to register the name of the assistant in a public register for a period of three years. This assistant will have no power over your property and they will not be able to sign any document on your behalf. They will act as an intermediary with third parties such as banks and government agencies. You can designate up to two assistants, who will not have to act jointly unless you want them to. The assistance measure does not take away any power from you and you can continue to act alone if you wish.
  • Temporary representation – This measure allows an incapable person to have a specific act performed on their behalf by a representative designated by the court (for example, to renounce a succession). It is limited to the specific act mentioned in the request and requires a medical assessment and legal steps.
• In case of incapacity in the absence of a protection mandate, tutorship protection for a person of full age is now instituted, since protective supervision in the form of curatorship and advisorship to a person of full age has been abolished. Tutorship is now the only form of protective supervision in Quebec for an incapable person who does not have a protection mandate. The court also has to take into account the capacities of the incapable person and give them the opportunity to perform certain acts alone. The tutor only has powers of simple administration and cannot dispose of the property of the incapable person without having obtained the authorizations prescribed by law (court or tutorship council).

Changes for minors^[1]

If a minor receives a sum of money or property as an inheritance or by gift, or if they accumulate significant assets from their work, the Public Curator provides supervision of the administered property, whether it is administered by the “legal tutors” (parents of the minor) or by the “dative tutor” (person other than the parents) of this child.

In this case, the obligations concerning an inventory, the annual rendering of account of administration to the Public Curator, as well as the other obligations relating to the administration of the property of a minor child are now exigible when this property has a value of more than $40,000. The supervision threshold was previously more than $25,000.

For more information on Bill 11, click here

^[1] A minor is a person under the age of 18 years.

An Act Respecting French, the Official and Common language of Quebec (Bill 96), which came into force on June 1, 2022, aims to affirm French as the sole official language of Quebec. While some legal documents may still be written in English, it is now impossible to publish in the land register and the register of personal and movable real rights in a language other than French. Deeds of mortgages and of sale, for example, can no longer be published in their complete form if they are written in English: the notary must prepare a summary of these deeds written in English, which must also be accompanied by a translation. All marriage or civil union certificates are also issued exclusively in French.