How Long Can Debt Collectors Collect in Canada?

In most Canadian provinces, a debt collector has two years from your last payment or written acknowledgment to sue you over an unpaid consumer debt. A few provinces give creditors longer, up to six years, and federal tax debt runs on its own 10-year clock. Once the deadline passes the debt becomes statute-barred: it still exists, and collectors can still phone and write asking for payment, but they lose the right to take you to court. That is the short answer to how long debt collectors can collect in Canada, and the rest depends on where you live and what you do next.

Limitation Periods by Province

Each province and territory sets its own limitation period for consumer debt. Several jurisdictions modernized their statutes in recent years and cut the window from six years to two, so older online information is often wrong.

Two years: Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario, and Saskatchewan
Three years: Quebec
Six years: Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and Yukon

Ontario’s two-year period comes from section 4 of the Limitations Act, 2002.¹ Manitoba’s two-year basic period was established by its own Limitations Act, which replaced an older six-year regime.² Newfoundland and Labrador’s six-year period for debt recovery is set out in section 6 of its Limitations Act,³ and Prince Edward Island uses a six-year window under its Statute of Limitations.⁴

These periods apply to unsecured consumer debts: credit cards, personal loans, lines of credit, and similar accounts. Secured debts like mortgages and car loans work differently. The basic limitation period for the underlying debt may be the same, but the creditor’s rights over the collateral often outlast the lawsuit deadline, and the rules get more complicated.

When the Clock Starts

For most consumer debts the clock starts on the date the creditor discovered, or reasonably should have discovered, that you defaulted. In practice that is usually the date of your first missed payment that you never caught up on. Ontario’s Limitations Act ties the start date to the day the creditor knew the debt was in default and that a lawsuit would be an appropriate remedy.¹ Other provinces use similar discovery rules with their own statutory wording.

What Resets the Clock

Certain actions restart the limitation period from zero and give the creditor a fresh window to sue. This is the biggest trap for anyone dealing with an old debt, and collection agents know how to trigger a reset.

Making any payment on the debt, even a small one, restarts the clock from the date of that payment. Ontario’s Limitations Act treats a partial payment the same as a formal acknowledgment of the debt.¹ Other provinces have equivalent rules. A written acknowledgment has the same effect, including signing a new payment agreement or sending an email confirming you owe the money.

What does not reset the clock: talking to a collector on the phone without promising to pay, receiving a collection letter, or having the debt sold to a new collection agency. If you are close to the end of a limitation period, treat any written communication with care. A quick email agreeing that you owe the money can hand the creditor two more years.

What Happens Once the Debt Is Statute-Barred

Once the limitation period expires the debt does not disappear. You still owe it in theory, and it may still sit on your credit report. What changes is that the creditor can no longer use the courts to force you to pay.

The statute-barred defense is not automatic. If a creditor sues you over an expired debt and you ignore the paperwork, the court can enter a default judgment against you. You have to show up and raise the limitation period as a defense: file a statement of defense with the court and attend your hearing. Many people lose on debts they could have won on simply because they assumed the court would notice the deadline had passed.

Collectors can still contact you about a statute-barred debt and ask you to pay voluntarily. What they cannot do is threaten to sue, because that legal right is gone. A threat of legal action on a statute-barred debt is misleading and violates collection rules. If you want the contact to stop, provincial rules give you tools. In Ontario, a collection agency must stop contacting you if your lawyer or licensed paralegal sends notice asking the agency to deal with them, or if you send a written notice saying you dispute the debt and want the matter taken to court.⁵ Federal rules also bar threatening or abusive language, undue pressure, and misrepresentation.⁶

The Credit Report Runs on a Different Clock

Do not confuse the lawsuit deadline with the credit reporting deadline. They are separate. Even after a debt becomes statute-barred it can stay on your credit report and continue affecting your score. Most negative debt information stays on your Equifax file for six years from the date of first default,⁷ and TransUnion applies the same six-year rule.⁸ Paying the debt off does not remove the entry early; it ages off based on the original default date.

Court Judgments Create a New Deadline

If a creditor sues you and wins before the limitation period expires, the judgment starts its own enforcement timeline. In most provinces a judgment remains enforceable for 10 years from the date it was pronounced, giving the creditor a decade to garnish wages, seize assets, or register liens against your property.

A judgment creditor can sometimes extend that window if you acknowledge the judgment debt in writing or make a voluntary payment before the 10-year period runs out. Once the judgment expires without renewal the creditor loses enforcement rights, though the underlying debt technically persists. A creditor who sues early and wins buys substantially more collection time than one relying on the original debt alone. Judgments also show on your credit file: six years in most provinces, seven in Ontario, Quebec, and Newfoundland and Labrador, and 10 in PEI.⁸

CRA Tax Debt Is Different

Federal tax debt does not follow the provincial rules above. The Canada Revenue Agency has a 10-year limitation period to collect income tax, GST/HST, and most other federal tax debts, and the clock starts 90 days after the notice of assessment or reassessment is sent.⁹ Some government debts, including Canada Pension Plan and Old Age Security overpayments, have no limitation period at all and can be pursued indefinitely.¹⁰

The CRA’s clock resets more easily than most creditors’. On the agency’s side, certifying the debt in Federal Court, initiating asset seizure, starting garnishment, or applying your tax refunds against the debt can each restart the 10-year period. On your side, acknowledging the debt in writing, negotiating a payment plan, or filing a notice of objection resets it too.¹⁰ After the period expires, voluntary payments you make should not restart it.

Student Loans

Federal student loans under the Canada Student Loans Act carry a six-year limitation period for collection, measured from the day the money becomes due and payable. Even after that period expires, the federal government keeps the right to recover the money by deducting it from any amounts the Crown owes you, such as tax refunds or benefit payments, and that offset power has no time limit.¹¹ Provincial student loans follow the general limitation rules of the province that issued them.

1
Ontario.ca. Ontario Code – Limitations Act, 2002
2
Government of Manitoba. The Limitations Act
3
House of Assembly of Newfoundland and Labrador. Limitations Act, SNL1995 Chapter L-16.1
4
Government of Prince Edward Island. Statute of Limitations
5
Government of Ontario. Stop Collection Agency Calls
6
Government of Canada. Debt Collection: Know Your Rights
7
Equifax Canada. How Long Does Information Stay on My Equifax Credit Report
8
TransUnion Canada. Frequently Asked Questions
9
Department of Justice Canada. Income Tax Act, RSC 1985, c. 1 (5th Supp.) – Section 222
10
Canada Revenue Agency. How Long a Debt Can Be Collected by the CRA
11
Department of Justice Canada. Canada Student Loans Act, RSC 1985, c. S-23