Changing legal gender assignment in Canada

Procedures for changing legal gender assignment in Canada vary between provinces and territories.

Except for Quebec, the information below concerns altering the sex recorded on one's birth certificate, and therefore must be done with regard to the province or territory where one was born.

Alberta

Following a 2014 court ruling that struck down the existing legislation and its surgery requirements as unconstitutional, the government of Alberta modified the Vital Statistics Information Regulation in 2015. The current regulations eliminate the surgical requirement. Instead, the applicant must submit a "statement confirming that the person identifies with and is maintaining the gender identity that corresponds with the requested amendment to the sex on the record of birth," as well as a letter from a physician or psychologist attesting that the amendment is appropriate. Legal change of gender is accessible to minors; this requires the parents' or guardians' consent, although this can be waived by court order or if the minor is emancipated, married, or a parent.

British Columbia

In British Columbia the requirement for surgery to change the birth certificate gender marker was removed in 2014.

Manitoba

Under Manitoba law, the Vital Statistics Act of Manitoba (C.C.S.M. c. V60) no longer requires gender reassignment surgery for a person to change their "sex designation" on their birth certificate. Names may also be changed using the normal procedure.

To change one's "sex designation" from Male to Female or Female to Male, one must fill out a form including a statutory declaration swearing that "[You are] currently living full-time in a manner consistent with the requested sex designation and intend to continue doing so." A letter from a medical professional confirming your gender identity is also required.

Nova Scotia

On May 11, 2015, Bill 82, An Act to Amend Chapter 66 of the Revised Statutes, 1989, the Change of Name Act, and Chapter 494 of the Revised Statutes, 1989, the Vital Statistics Act received Royal Assent. This act abolishes the surgical requirement, instead requiring a statement "that the applicant has assumed, identifies with and intends to maintain the gender identity that corresponds with the change requested," and an attestation from a professional that the applicant's gender identity does not correspond to that listed on the birth certificate. (The professions empowered to provide such an attestation are to be established by regulation.) Legal change of gender is available to those 16 years of age and older, and to those younger than 16 with parental permission (unless waived by a court order).

The act came into force the week of September 24, 2015.

Existing requirements

As per Bill 82, An Act to Amend Chapter 66 of the Revised Statutes, 1989, the Change of Name Act, and Chapter 494 of the Revised Statutes, 1989, the Vital Statistics Act which came into force the week of September 24, 2015:

Clauses 1 and 2 lower the age at which parental consent is no longer required for a change of name from 19 years to 16 years.

Clause 3

(a) eliminates the requirement for sex-reassignment surgery to change the sex shown on a person’s birth registration, and replaces it with a requirement that a person provide written statements from the person and from a member of a profession prescribed by the regulations;

(b) requires that a person under the age of 16 years have parental consent for a change in the sex shown on the person’s birth registration and that the written statement from a member of a profession prescribed by the regulations be from a professional who has treated or evaluated the person;

(c) provides for the updating, following a change to the sex shown on a person’s birth registration, of marriage and domestic partnership registrations of the person and birth registrations of any child of the person;

(d) sets out provisions respecting the issuance of birth, marriage and domestic-partnership certificates following the change of the sex shown on an applicant’s birth registration; and

(e) provides a means for the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia to dispense with the consent of a parent when an application is made by a person under the age of 16 years if it is in the interest of the applicant to do so.

Ontario

On 11 April 2012, the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario ruled that sexual reassignment surgery is no longer required for a change in sex designation in government documents. In its decision, the Tribunal ordered that the Ontario government "shall cease requiring [Ontario born only] transgender persons to have 'transsexual surgery' in order to obtain a change in sex designation on their registration of birth" and has 180 days to "revise the criteria for changing sex designation on a birth registration". This makes Ontario the first jurisdiction in Canada to allow Ontario born transgender people to change the gender on their Ontario only birth certificates without sex reassignment surgery.

Pursuant to the Tribunal ruling, an applicant now only requires an Application for Change of Sex Designation on a Birth Registration form, a statutory declaration to the effect, and a letter signed by a medical doctor or psychologist that is licensed to practice in Canada stating that the applicant's gender identity does not conform to their sex designation at birth.

Saskatchewan

The relevant legislation is the Saskatchewan Vital Statistics Act. It requires a medical certificate of completed SRS from a physician licensed in the jurisdiction where the surgery took place (or, if this cannot be obtained, other documentation as required by the director of vital statistics); a certificate signed by a second licensed physician attesting that the person was examined and found to be of the target sex; and "any other evidence the director may require." With this, the sex on a birth certificate issued in Saskatchewan may be altered. The fee is $20. See Saskatchewan Health—Vital Statistics.

See also

• Legal aspects of transsexualism
• Name change
• List of transgender-related topics