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I'll have that status here in the Canadian province of Quebec later this year when my partner and I pass 1 year of living together. We'll be called common-law p

I'll have that status here in the Canadian province of Quebec later this year when my partner and I pass 1 year of living together. We'll be called common-law partners. That counts the same as marriage for many purposes, including tax and immigration rights within the Canadian system, but not for everything (e.g. no automatic inheritance and no need for divorce if we split). Many of the other legal differences can be reduced or eliminated by preparing contracts or documents like wills, but not all. It's a great step before marriage, to provide recognition and protections for people who want a different bundle of legal consequences than marriage provides, for people who object to marriage on any number of reasons of principle, for people who want to defer the legally binding wedding until after the pandemic when their family can attend, to have less of a relationship hierarchy in polyamorous or open relationships, while waiting for just the right romantic moment to propose or to be able to obtain the right engagement ring, etc. A lot of people either don't like marriage or don't view it as a valuable priority, even if they have a relationship. Federal government statistics from here in Quebec in 2016 show that only 34.3% of the province's population age 15 or over was married, and fully 22% of that population had a common-law partner. https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2016/as-sa/fogs-spg/Facts-PR-Eng.cfm?TOPIC=4&LANG=Eng&GK=PR&GC=24 https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2016/as-sa/fo... (I'm not sure why they started that stat at 15, since the earliest you can get married in Canada is 16 and even that requires permission from e.g. a court or parent. Maybe it's for uniform reporting versus pre-2015 data where earlier ages were sometimes legal.)

philistine 6y ago
Be careful. The only automatic common-law things that the Québec government kick in are the “bad” ones (paying taxes). If you want to benefit from the full protection of a common law relationship, you have to actively register.
- jkaplowitz 6y ago
  There's no such thing as registering a common-law relationship in Quebec, unless you mean a civil union which is legally entirely different. By common-law partner I mean (as do the federal government statistics I cited) what the Quebec government and legislation often call de facto spouse, de facto partner, or sometimes shoehorn into the definition of spouse despite not being married. And the taxes aren't always a bad thing. In my case, my partner makes much less income than me, so starting this year we can shift medical expenses to her tax return to save with the medical expenses tax credit. We'll also qualify to share health insurance plans despite not being married.
  - philistine 6y ago
    Yeah, I wasn't clear; I'm terribly sorry. Let me circle back and invite you to make sure you know all the limitations of being common law partners (which you seem to be). For my wife and I for example, the fear that her parents might have the final say in her health decisions if she's incapacitated meant we needed more than simply common law.
    - jkaplowitz 6y ago
      Well, as for that particular point, https://educaloi.qc.ca/en/capsules/incapacity-being-unable-to-care-for-yourself-or-your-affairs/ https://educaloi.qc.ca/en/capsules/incapacity-being-unable-t... makes it appear that spouses and common-law partners and parents are all equally able to submit a request to a court for protective supervision if the person in question hasn't prepared a protection mandate (formerly known as mandate in case of incapacity). And you and your wife were just as able to override that by giving protection mandates to each other before you married as you are now. Do you know otherwise? In our case, there are strong financial reasons not to get married yet: she's a student receiving Quebec financial aid, and since we're unmarried and childless at the moment, Quebec doesn't consider my income or assets in student aid decisions (unlike how e.g. Ontario treats common-law partners). Once that changes, we may reconsider.
blaser-waffle 6y ago
Same is true in Alberta. You don't even have to live together in Canada, just be able to prove you lived together for 1 year somewhere. I met my girl in Australia and between working on a farm together for a year and then a "short" visitor visa (6 months) in Canada we met that 1+ year requirement. Didn't hurt that I do IT remotely. My understanding is that it was originally set up to allow gay couples to apply, as most countries didn't/still don't have gay marriage laws on the books. However only offering it to one group would be discriminatory, so everyone can use it, in theory. In my apartment building there is at least one other couple, a Scottish guy and Canadian girl, who did the same. Plus, as the parent mentions, regular marriage is on the decline in N. America too. That said, common law still carries weight in things like inheritance, and if you split they can petition for your property and money, just like in a divorce. They just have fewer/more limited rights to things, and there is a 2-year window to file after splitting, while a divorce decree can be far more encompassing and longer lasting.
- jkaplowitz 6y ago
  Yeah, most of what I said applies to all of Canada, except for the specific statistics about Quebec which are even more shifted against marriage than the rest of Canada. Also I believe the status that was created for same-sex couples is civil unions, which at least in Quebec still exists as a separate option as well. What you said about common law applying to inheritance and splitting doesn't actually apply to Quebec, however. No rights exist in that context here unless otherwise agreed in certain ways. Very different legal regime than the rest of Canada. (Technically common-law partners are called de facto spouses or de facto partners under some Quebec laws, though others include them under the definition of spouse despite not being married. Makes sense since Quebec doesn't use the common-law legal system with respect to relations between people, as opposed to between people and the government where it does.)

philistine 6y ago

Be careful. The only automatic common-law things that the Québec government kick in are the “bad” ones (paying taxes). If you want to benefit from the full protection of a common law relationship, you have to actively register.

jkaplowitz 6y ago
There's no such thing as registering a common-law relationship in Quebec, unless you mean a civil union which is legally entirely different. By common-law partner I mean (as do the federal government statistics I cited) what the Quebec government and legislation often call de facto spouse, de facto partner, or sometimes shoehorn into the definition of spouse despite not being married. And the taxes aren't always a bad thing. In my case, my partner makes much less income than me, so starting this year we can shift medical expenses to her tax return to save with the medical expenses tax credit. We'll also qualify to share health insurance plans despite not being married.
- philistine 6y ago
  Yeah, I wasn't clear; I'm terribly sorry. Let me circle back and invite you to make sure you know all the limitations of being common law partners (which you seem to be). For my wife and I for example, the fear that her parents might have the final say in her health decisions if she's incapacitated meant we needed more than simply common law.
  - jkaplowitz 6y ago
    Well, as for that particular point, https://educaloi.qc.ca/en/capsules/incapacity-being-unable-to-care-for-yourself-or-your-affairs/ https://educaloi.qc.ca/en/capsules/incapacity-being-unable-t... makes it appear that spouses and common-law partners and parents are all equally able to submit a request to a court for protective supervision if the person in question hasn't prepared a protection mandate (formerly known as mandate in case of incapacity). And you and your wife were just as able to override that by giving protection mandates to each other before you married as you are now. Do you know otherwise? In our case, there are strong financial reasons not to get married yet: she's a student receiving Quebec financial aid, and since we're unmarried and childless at the moment, Quebec doesn't consider my income or assets in student aid decisions (unlike how e.g. Ontario treats common-law partners). Once that changes, we may reconsider.

blaser-waffle 6y ago

Same is true in Alberta. You don't even have to live together in Canada, just be able to prove you lived together for 1 year somewhere. I met my girl in Australia and between working on a farm together for a year and then a "short" visitor visa (6 months) in Canada we met that 1+ year requirement. Didn't hurt that I do IT remotely. My understanding is that it was originally set up to allow gay couples to apply, as most countries didn't/still don't have gay marriage laws on the books. However only offering it to one group would be discriminatory, so everyone can use it, in theory. In my apartment building there is at least one other couple, a Scottish guy and Canadian girl, who did the same. Plus, as the parent mentions, regular marriage is on the decline in N. America too. That said, common law still carries weight in things like inheritance, and if you split they can petition for your property and money, just like in a divorce. They just have fewer/more limited rights to things, and there is a 2-year window to file after splitting, while a divorce decree can be far more encompassing and longer lasting.

jkaplowitz 6y ago
Yeah, most of what I said applies to all of Canada, except for the specific statistics about Quebec which are even more shifted against marriage than the rest of Canada. Also I believe the status that was created for same-sex couples is civil unions, which at least in Quebec still exists as a separate option as well. What you said about common law applying to inheritance and splitting doesn't actually apply to Quebec, however. No rights exist in that context here unless otherwise agreed in certain ways. Very different legal regime than the rest of Canada. (Technically common-law partners are called de facto spouses or de facto partners under some Quebec laws, though others include them under the definition of spouse despite not being married. Makes sense since Quebec doesn't use the common-law legal system with respect to relations between people, as opposed to between people and the government where it does.)