How long a creditor has to sue you in Canada, province by province, explained

Our own statute-of-limitations explainer covers the U.S., where each state sets its own window — typically 3 to 6 years — for a creditor to sue over an unpaid debt. Canada runs the same basic idea through provincial law, the same structural pattern our Canadian debt collection rules explainer describes for contact rules and our Canadian credit reporting explainer describes for your file itself. What's different here is how much of the country has actually landed on one shared answer: most provinces now run a 2-year clock, but the specific rule that starts it, the hard outer limit behind it, and whether a province uses this model at all still varies enough to matter.

The modern rule: 2 years from discovery, adopted province by province

Ontario was first, with the Limitations Act, 2002, in force since January 1, 2004: a 2-year basic limitation period running from the day a claim is "discovered" — the day you knew, or reasonably ought to have known, that you had a claim against a specific person worth pursuing — backed by a 15-year ultimate limitation period that runs regardless of discovery. New Brunswick adopted the same 2-year-discovery/15-year-ultimate structure in 2010 (Limitation of Actions Act, S.N.B. 2009, c. L-8.5), British Columbia in 2013 (Limitation Act, S.B.C. 2012, c. 13), Nova Scotia in 2015 (Limitation of Actions Act, S.N.S. 2014, c. 35), and Manitoba most recently, on September 30, 2022 (The Limitations Act, S.M. 2021, c. 44, replacing a patchwork of periods running from 2 to 10 years depending on the type of claim). Saskatchewan reached the same 2-year discovery rule earlier, in 2005, under The Limitations Act, S.S. 2004, c. L-16.1. Alberta runs its own, older version of the same basic idea under its Limitations Act, R.S.A. 2000, c. L-12 — a 2-year discovery period, but paired with only a 10-year ultimate limitation period rather than 15, a real difference from every other province on this list.

A concrete example of the difference: file the identical lawsuit 12 years after the underlying debt, having only just discovered your right to sue. In Ontario, B.C., New Brunswick, or Nova Scotia, you're still inside the 15-year ultimate period and the claim can proceed. In Alberta, the 10-year ultimate limitation period has already run — the claim is barred regardless of when you actually discovered it. Same basic 2-year rule, two different outer boundaries.

What actually starts, and restarts, the 2-year clock

"Discovery" for a debt claim generally means the date payment became due and was missed, or — more commonly in practice — the date of the debtor's last payment or last written acknowledgment of the debt, whichever is later. A partial payment or a written acknowledgment (an email admitting the debt is owed, a signed payment plan) genuinely restarts the 2-year clock in each of these provinces; a phone call from a collector, a dispute you never responded to, or the account simply aging on its own does not. That mechanic is why an old debt can look time-barred by the calendar and still be well within the limitation period in practice — the operative date isn't when you first missed a payment, but when you last did something the law counts as reviving the claim.

Quebec runs a separate civil-law regime, not a common-law limitations act

Quebec doesn't have a "Limitations Act" at all — ordinary debt claims are governed by the Civil Code of Québec's rules on prescription, specifically article 2925, which sets a 3-year prescriptive period for a personal right of action where no other period is specified. As in the common-law provinces, a payment or a written acknowledgment of the debt interrupts the prescription period and starts it running again; once 3 years pass without a lawsuit or a qualifying interruption, a creditor loses the right to enforce the debt through Quebec's courts.

Five jurisdictions still run the older, category-by-category system

Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, Yukon, the Northwest Territories, and Nunavut never replaced their older limitations statutes with a unified discovery-plus-ultimate model. Instead, each lists specific limitation periods for specific kinds of claims — one length for an action on a simple contract or debt, a different one for a claim on a judgment, another for real property — rather than one basic period covering all of them. P.E.I.'s own Statute of Limitations, R.S.P.E.I. 1988, c. S-7, is a working example: it sets a 6-year period for an action founded on a simple contract, expressly restartable by a later payment or a signed written acknowledgment, the same underlying mechanic as the modern provinces' discoverability model, just built on an older, category-based statute rather than one unified rule. Newfoundland and Labrador, Yukon, the Northwest Territories, and Nunavut each run a comparable 6-year period for an ordinary contract or debt claim under their own, separately numbered limitations statutes — well outside the 2-year window that now applies across most of the rest of the country.

An expired limitation period doesn't erase the debt

In every jurisdiction on this page, a limitation period running out is a defense to a lawsuit, not proof the debt no longer exists. A collector can still contact you, still report the account to a credit bureau (subject to whatever separate reporting-period rules apply — see our Canadian credit reporting explainer), and can even still file a lawsuit; if they do, the time-barred defense only protects you if you actually raise it in court. It has to be pleaded, not assumed — a debtor who ignores a time-barred claim and lets a default judgment be entered against them loses the protection the limitation period was supposed to give them, in every province and territory covered here.

This page explains the general limitation-period rules for an ordinary unsecured debt claim in each jurisdiction — it isn't legal advice for your own situation. Exactly when a specific claim was "discovered," whether a specific communication counts as an acknowledgment that restarts the clock, and how a specific province's exceptions apply are fact-specific legal questions; a lawyer licensed in the relevant province or territory is the right next step before assuming any of this protects you.