Unmarried parents would get 'parental union' status under Quebec bill

Quebec hopes to create a new legal status for unmarried couples with children to better regulate the growing number of families in the province who aren't subject to the legal protections of traditional civil status.

The creation of a "parental union" is the centerpiece of a family law reform bill that provincial Minister of Justice Simon Jolin-Barrette introduced at the Quebec national assembly Wednesday morning.

The status would apply automatically to new parents who are neither married nor in a formal civil union. It would establish that certain property -- including the family home, furniture and vehicles -- are common goods, regardless of who has official ownership.

The value of those goods would then be evenly divided between the parents if they separated, though couples could choose to withdraw from the property provision or adjust its scope. Members of a separated parental union would also be able to seek additional compensation in court if they disproportionately contributed to the value of the communal goods to their own financial detriment.

At a news conference, Jolin-Barrette said the new status would enable Quebec law to catch up with rapidly changing family dynamics in the province, where government data show the proportion of couples living together who are neither married nor in a civil union has quintupled in the last 40 years, from eight per cent in 1981 to 42 per cent in 2021.

Across Canada, the proportion was 23 per cent in 2021, according to Statistics Canada.

Current law sets separation standards only for married and civil union couples. Jolin-Barrette said the declining popularity of marriage means a growing number of children risk losing their homes if they end up in the custody of the parent who did not own the property.

Among the other measures in his reform bill is a change that would enable members of a parental union to inherit from each other if one of them dies, and a provision that would protect children from short-notice expulsion from their family home.

"The idea here is to put in place the necessary protections to prevent the child from suffering the repercussions of their parents' separation," the minister said.

But Robert Leckey, dean of the McGill University law faculty, says the new parental union status will still fail to encompass some family types, such as partners who are raising children together from previous relationships.

"The couple living together with a common child will be treated differently from the couple living together, each with a kid from a previous union, even though they will look very similar," he said.

Moreover, the reform doesn't apply to couples without children. Quebec is the only province that does not offer some sort of legal status to childless couples who are unmarried or not in a civil union, Leckey said.

In family law, he continued, Quebec continues to "lean pretty hard on the ideas of autonomy and freedom and people making decisions to protect themselves. And this doesn't really change it that much."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 27, 2024.

— With files from Caroline Plante in Quebec City.