One of the most common moments families come to me is right after they have realized that the parent who is now showing real signs of incapacity never actually signed a protection mandate. The phone call usually starts the same way: "We just assumed she had one." Or: "We thought the power of attorney covered it." The good news is, your family is not stuck. There is a clear path forward in Quebec, even when no mandate exists. Here is what it looks like.
The short answer
If your loved one is no longer capable of making their own decisions and never signed a protection mandate, the Quebec answer is tutorship to a person of full age. The Court appoints a tutor (often a family member) to act on their behalf, based on medical and psychosocial evaluations and a hearing of the family.
The path is longer and slightly more expensive than homologating an existing mandate would have been, but it is well established, and most families navigate it with a combination of a notary, a social worker, and a physician.
Why this happens more often than people think
In my practice, families almost always assume one of two things: that their parent signed a protection mandate at some point and that it is on file somewhere, or that the power of attorney they have used for years will cover what comes next. Both assumptions can be wrong. Many Quebec adults never signed a protection mandate at all, and a power of attorney stops working the moment the person who granted it loses capacity.
If you are reading this and your loved one is not yet incapacitated, the cleanest thing you can do today is to ask them, gently, whether they have a protection mandate, and where it is. If they do not have one, that is the conversation to have with a notary while there is still time.
If your loved one is still capable
The simplest case is when capacity has not yet been lost. A protection mandate can be drafted with a notary in a straightforward appointment. The cost is a fraction of what a tutorship application later would cost, and your loved one gets to choose who they want as their mandatary, rather than leaving that choice to the Court. The mandate sits dormant until it is needed.
If you suspect capacity is on the edge, a notary can usually still help, often after a brief conversation with the person to confirm that they understand what they are signing. Notaries are practiced at this judgment call. If they have any doubt, they will say so and recommend the tutorship route instead.
If your loved one is no longer capable: tutorship is the path
When a protection mandate was never signed and capacity is already lost, the protective measure available is tutorship to a person of full age. Tutorship is opened through an application to the Superior Court of Quebec, supported by both a medical evaluation and a psychosocial evaluation. The Court reviews the evaluations, hears from the family, and decides who should be appointed as tutor.
Most uncontested tutorship applications in Quebec are now handled through the non-contentious procedure with a notary, similar to mandate homologation. The notary collects the evaluations, prepares the application, notifies family members and other people close to the person, and submits the file to the Court. If no one contests, the Court issues the judgment.
If anyone in the family disagrees with the application, or with who should be appointed, the file moves to a contested track and a lawyer becomes involved. Most families, in my experience, do not end up there.
The medical and psychosocial evaluations
Both reports are required by law, and both serve a different purpose. The medical evaluation is conducted by a physician and confirms the medical reason your loved one has lost capacity, often a diagnosis of dementia, a brain injury, or a long-standing mental illness. The psychosocial evaluation is conducted by a social worker and looks at your loved one's social functioning, their daily autonomy, the support around them, and what kind of representation they actually need.
The two reports complement each other. The medical evaluation answers why they have lost capacity. The psychosocial evaluation answers what kind of help they need. Together, they give the Court (and the notary) a picture clear enough to make a sound decision about the protective measure.
I always ask families to start the medical evaluation first, or at least to have it scheduled. The psychosocial side moves faster when the medical side is already in motion.
Modulated tutorship: an important detail
Tutorship in Quebec is not all-or-nothing. Since November 2022, the Court can modulate the tutorship to leave certain civil acts in the hands of the represented person. There are six categories the Court can carve out: voting, choosing where to live, routine purchases, leases, employment contracts, and the management of a portion of their own income. The psychosocial evaluation is where this gets discussed in detail. If your loved one can still make some of these decisions meaningfully, the modulated tutorship preserves that.
Most families do not know this option exists, and many tutorship files end up more restrictive than they need to be. If autonomy on any of the six categories is something your loved one would value, raise it with the social worker doing the psychosocial evaluation.
The fastest path forward
If you are starting from zero with no mandate, here is the realistic order:
- Engage a notary who handles non-contentious tutorship applications. Ask whether they have done these before; not every notary takes them on.
- Schedule the medical evaluation with your loved one's physician, or a physician the notary refers you to.
- Schedule the psychosocial evaluation with a social worker. The home visit is usually 45 to 90 minutes, and the report is ready within two to four weeks.
- The notary assembles the file, notifies the family, and submits to the Court.
- The Court issues the judgment. Total elapsed time, from start to finish, is usually three to nine months in uncontested files.
The cost is higher than for a homologated mandate, mainly because of the additional notary work and the family notifications, but it is still well within reach for most families.
What about temporary representation in the meantime?
If your loved one needs a single decision made urgently while the tutorship application is in progress, Quebec law allows a notary to apply for a temporary representation measure. This is a faster, narrower order from the Court that authorizes a specific act, for example, signing a long-term care admission, accessing a specific account, or consenting to a particular medical procedure. It does not replace tutorship, but it bridges the gap when the full file is taking time.
What about Article 15 of the Civil Code?
For purely medical decisions when no mandatary or tutor has yet been appointed, Article 15 of the Quebec Civil Code sets out who can give consent for an incapable adult: in order, the mandatary, the tutor, the spouse, or a close relative or person showing special interest. This is the rule physicians follow at the bedside when a decision cannot wait. It is not a substitute for tutorship for ongoing care or property management, but it answers the immediate question of who signs the medical consent in an emergency.
What I tell families who arrive with no mandate
The first thing I say is: this is recoverable. The second thing I say is: do not delay. The longer the file sits, the more decisions get made informally by whoever happens to be available, and the harder it becomes to untangle later. The path through tutorship is well worn, and most families come out the other side with the protective measure they needed and a clearer sense of how to support their loved one going forward.
If you are at this point and not sure what to do next, the orientation is the easy part. A short conversation usually answers most of the questions families come in with, and gives a clear sense of which steps to take in which order.