Regulations Amending the Old Age Security Regulations: SOR/2025-231

Canada Gazette, Part II, Volume 159, Number 25

Registration
SOR/2025-231 November 21, 2025

OLD AGE SECURITY ACT

P.C. 2025-811 November 21, 2025

Her Excellency the Governor General in Council, on the recommendation of the Minister of Employment and Social Development, makes the annexed Regulations Amending the Old Age Security Regulations under section 34^{footnote a} of the Old Age Security Act ^{footnote b}.

Regulations Amending the Old Age Security Regulations

Amendments

1 Section 16 of the Old Age Security Regulations ^{footnote 1} is replaced by the following:

16 (1) If the Minister has not received information in support of an application for a benefit that is necessary to determine the relationship between the applicant and their spouse or common-law partner, the Minister may require that one of the following documents be submitted:

• (a) in the case of spouses, their certificate of marriage, a copy of that certificate or a copy of their act of marriage; or
• (b) in the case of common-law partners, a statutory declaration setting out information as to their relationship or, if applicable, any other evidence of the relationship.

(2) If there are reasonable grounds to doubt the validity of the copy of a certificate or act of marriage referred to in paragraph (1)(a), the Minister may require that the original certificate of marriage or, if applicable, a copy of the act of marriage issued by the competent authority be submitted.

(3) If there are reasonable grounds to believe that none of the documents referred to in paragraph (1)(a) are available, the Minister may determine the relationship between the applicant and their spouse on the basis of a statutory declaration setting out information as to their marriage or, if applicable, any other evidence of the marriage.

2 Section 18 of the Regulations is replaced by the following:

18 (1) Subject to subsections (2) to (4) and section 19, the Minister must determine an applicant’s age and identity for the purposes of the Act on the basis of

• (a) a birth certificate, a copy of one or a copy of an act of birth; or
• (b) any information made available to the Minister by the Canada Employment Insurance Commission under subsection 28.2(5) of the Department of Employment and Social Development Act.

(2) If there are reasonable grounds to doubt the validity of the copy of a birth certificate or act of birth referred to in paragraph (1)(a), the Minister may require that the original birth certificate or, if applicable, a copy of the act of birth issued by the competent authority be submitted.

(3) If there are reasonable grounds to believe that none of the documents referred to in paragraph (1)(a) are available, the Minister may determine the applicant’s age and identity on the basis of any other information or evidence respecting the applicant’s age and identity.

(4) If the Minister is unable to determine the applicant’s age and identity under any of subsections (1) to (3), the Minister may, if possible, determine them on the basis of any information obtained from Statistics Canada under section 6 of the Act.

18.1 For the purposes of section 6 of the Act, the conditions are the following:

• (a) the request to Statistics Canada must
  • (i) be made in a form prescribed by the Chief Statistician of Canada,
  • (ii) bear the signed consent of the person who is the subject of the request, and
  • (iii) include the specific information that is necessary for searching the census records; and
• (b) any information supplied by Statistics Canada must be kept confidential and must not be used for a purpose other than determining the applicant’s age as required under the Act or the Canada Pension Plan, as the case may be.

Coming into Force

3 These Regulations come into force on January 1, 2026.

N.B. The Regulatory Impact Analysis Statement for these Regulations appears following SOR/2025-230, Regulations Amending the Canada Pension Plan Regulations.