Divorce itself is governed by one federal law across Canada, but almost everything you'll actually negotiate — property, and often the process itself — is decided by the province you live in.
The Divorce Act is a federal statute, so the legal ground for divorce, the rules on parenting arrangements, and the framework for child and spousal support are the same whether you're filing in Vancouver, Winnipeg, or Halifax. What is not the same is property division. Each province and territory has its own family property legislation — Ontario's net family property equalization, British Columbia's excluded property model, Quebec's civil-law family patrimony, and so on — and these regimes can produce very different outcomes from the same set of facts.
This split matters practically. A general search for 'divorce law in Canada' will tell you about grounds, support, and parenting — the federal layer. It will not tell you how your house, pension, or business gets divided; for that you need the rules of your specific province. If you haven't already, it's worth reading the preparation guide for your own province alongside this one, since that's where the concrete numbers live.
Divorce applications themselves are filed in the superior court of the province where at least one spouse has habitually resided for the year before filing — the Superior Court of Justice in Ontario, the Supreme Court in BC, the Court of King's Bench in several Prairie provinces, and similarly named courts elsewhere. A Central Registry of Divorce Proceedings exists federally so the same divorce isn't started twice in different provinces.
Under the Divorce Act, the ground for divorce is the breakdown of the marriage, and in practice that's shown almost always by having lived separate and apart for one year. You don't need to wait the full year before filing — you can start the application once you've separated and the divorce is typically finalized once the year has passed — and you don't need your spouse's agreement or a formal separation agreement to rely on this ground, though having one helps enormously with everything else.
Adultery and cruelty exist as alternative grounds that don't require the one-year wait, but they require proving fault in court, which is expensive, slow, and rarely worth it compared to simply using the separation period. The overwhelming majority of Canadian divorces proceed on the no-fault, one-year basis.
Separating doesn't require moving out. Living separate and apart under the same roof is recognized across Canada, provided the couple can show the relationship functioned as ended — separate finances, separate routines, no longer presenting as a couple. If this applies to you, documentation of when and how the separation began becomes especially important.
Child support follows the Federal Child Support Guidelines everywhere in Canada, calculated primarily from the paying parent's income and the number of children, with adjustments for shared parenting time and special expenses. Spousal support doesn't have a binding formula, but the Spousal Support Advisory Guidelines are used informally by lawyers and courts nationwide to bracket a reasonable range based on income difference and length of marriage.
Property is the opposite story. There is no national formula for who keeps the house, the pension, or the business — that's entirely a matter of provincial law, and the differences are substantial. Some provinces value property as of the separation date, others exclude specific assets like inheritances or pre-relationship property, and Quebec's civil-law approach differs in structure from the common-law provinces entirely. This is the single biggest reason 'general Canadian divorce advice' can mislead people about their own numbers.
1) Confirm your separation date and, if possible, get it in writing somewhere — a text, an email, a note — since so much else (the one-year clock, and in many provinces the property valuation date) runs from it. 2) Start gathering three years of tax documents, pay records, and statements for every bank, investment, and pension account, since disclosure obligations are demanding across every province. 3) Read your own province's preparation page for the property and process specifics that this overview can't cover. 4) Get at least one consultation with a family lawyer licensed in your province early — provincial rules on process and disclosure forms vary enough that general knowledge isn't a substitute for local advice. 5) From the first letter either side sends, keep a record of dates, deadlines, and what was actually proposed — this becomes the backbone of any negotiation, mediation, or court step that follows.
The Divorce Act — grounds for divorce, support guidelines, and parenting rules — applies federally. Property division does not; it's set by each province's own family property legislation, so outcomes can differ significantly by where you live.
No. You can file once you've separated, and the divorce is generally finalized once one year of separation has passed. Adultery or cruelty can support an earlier divorce but require proving fault, which is rarely used in practice.
Courts across Canada can recognize separation under the same roof if the relationship has genuinely ended in substance — separate finances and routines, no longer functioning as a couple. If this is your situation, documenting when that shift happened matters.
SortMyDivorce reads the legal letters you receive — from your own lawyer, the other side, or the court — and turns them into one organized dashboard: every deadline, every position, every quote, ready for you to confirm. Built for exactly this stage of a Canadian divorce. $39/year.
This guide is general information, not legal advice. Laws change and differ by jurisdiction — confirm specifics with a local family lawyer or your court's official website. If you use SortMyDivorce, your letters stay confidential — never shared, never sold.