Unmarried parents to get ‘parental union’ status under Quebec family law reforms

MONTREAL — 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 centrepiece of a family law reform bill that provincial Minister of Justice Simon Jolin-Barrette introduced at the Quebec national assembly on Wednesday.

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.

At a news conference, JolinBarrette 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 past 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.