# When does the clock run out?

> Work out the ordinary civil deadline in any Canadian jurisdiction, see how many days are left, and put it in your calendar.

Source: https://imecore.com/tools/limitation-period-calculator

This tool runs entirely in the browser. Nothing is uploaded and no account is needed.

## How to use it

1. **Pick the jurisdiction.** Each province and territory carries its own period and its own statute.
2. **Enter the discovery date.** When the claim was, or ought to have been, discovered. This drives the basic period.
3. **Add the date of the act.** The ultimate period runs from this date, whatever anyone knew.
4. **Take the earlier date.** The tool shows both and tells you which expires first. Export it as a calendar entry.

## Two clocks, not one

Most Canadian jurisdictions run a basic period from discovery and an ultimate period from the act itself. The basic period is usually two years. The ultimate period is fifteen years in Ontario, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, ten in Alberta and Newfoundland and Labrador, and thirty in Manitoba. Whichever expires first is the one that matters.

## Quebec counts differently

Quebec uses prescription rather than limitation. The general period for a personal action is three years under article 2925 of the Civil Code. Bodily injury has its own article, and claims arising from certain offences run far longer. Do not assume the common-law two years applies in Quebec.

## The special regimes are the ones that catch people

The general civil period is rarely the shortest clock on an IME file. Statutory accident benefits, workers' compensation objections, municipal notice periods, and claims against the Crown all run on their own timelines, and several of them are measured in days rather than years. A file can be well inside the limitation period and already out of time to object.

## This is a reference, not advice

Every row names its statute so you can check it. Minority, incapacity, acknowledgement, fraudulent concealment, and transitional provisions from a repealed Act can all move a date. Use this to set a reminder and to sanity-check a diary entry. Do not use it to decide whether to issue.

## Questions people ask

### What is the limitation period in Ontario?

Two years from discovery for an ordinary civil claim, with a fifteen-year ultimate period from the act or omission. Source: Limitations Act, 2002, sections 4 and 15. Accident benefits under the SABS run on much shorter timelines of their own.

### What is the limitation period in British Columbia?

Two years from discovery, with a fifteen-year ultimate period. Source: Limitation Act, SBC 2012, sections 6 and 21. ICBC claims carry separate notice requirements on top of this.

### Why is Quebec three years?

Quebec is a civil-law jurisdiction and uses prescription rather than limitation. Article 2925 of the Civil Code sets three years for a personal action. Bodily injury is dealt with separately at article 2926.1.

### Does the discovery date always start the clock?

Usually, but not always. The ultimate period runs from the act itself regardless of discovery, and that is the point of it. Minority and incapacity can suspend the basic period. Acknowledgement of a debt can restart it.

### Can I rely on this for a filing decision?

No. It is a reference with the statutes cited so you can verify them, and a calendar export so a date does not get lost. The decision to issue is a legal one.