Canada has never had a single national birth register. Each province began registering births on its own schedule, starting with Ontario in 1869, and the last of today's provinces did not have working civil registration until the early 1900s. Before those dates there is no government birth certificate for anyone, and the record of a birth is a church baptism.
Start Dates by Province
These are the years each province began civil birth registration. Early registration was often incomplete, so a birth a few years after the start date can still be missing; the provincial archive or vital statistics office can confirm.
- Ontario: July 1, 1869. Registrations older than about a hundred years are held by the Archives of Ontario, not ServiceOntario.
- Quebec: No separate civil register. Parish registers served as the civil record from the 1600s. The Directeur de l'état civil issues copies of acts from 1900 onward; for earlier births the record is the parish baptism, held at BAnQ.
- Nova Scotia: 1864, but registration stopped in 1877 and did not resume until 1908. Births between 1877 and 1908 generally have no civil record.
- New Brunswick: 1888, with uneven coverage for many years after.
- Manitoba: 1882.
- British Columbia: 1872.
- Prince Edward Island: 1906.
- Saskatchewan and Alberta: Both were part of the North-West Territories until they became provinces in 1905. Territorial records before then are incomplete, and most birth records start around 1905.
- Newfoundland and Labrador: Civil registration began in 1891, while Newfoundland was still a separate country. It joined Canada in 1949.
What If the Birth Came Before Civil Registration?
Then there is no birth certificate to order, and asking for one will only get you a refusal. The record of the birth is the church baptism, usually in a Catholic, Anglican, Methodist or Presbyterian parish register. Provincial archives, church archives and FamilySearch hold most of them.
If you need the record for a Canadian citizenship application, treat the baptism as secondary evidence and get two things: a certified copy of the baptism from the archive that holds the register, and a letter from the provincial vital statistics office confirming that no birth record exists. In Quebec that letter comes from the Directeur de l'état civil, and IRCC has asked applicants for it. Our guide to the DEC letter IRCC asks for explains how to request it.
What If the Birth Came After the Start Date?
Order the long-form certificate, sometimes called the certified copy of the birth registration, which names both parents. That is the version IRCC needs to link one generation to the next. Our guide to getting a Canadian birth certificate in each province lists the right product and office for every province, and the Ontario records guide covers the most common case, an Ontario birth before 1920.
Quick Answers
When did Ontario start issuing birth certificates? Civil birth registration in Ontario began on July 1, 1869.
Is there a national Canadian birth certificate? No. Every birth certificate comes from the province or territory where the person was born.
My ancestor was born in Quebec in the 1880s. Can I get a birth certificate? No. The record is the parish baptism, held at BAnQ. Pair it with a letter from the Directeur de l'état civil saying no birth certificate can be issued.
If you are tracing a Canadian ancestor for citizenship by descent, MaplePass tells you which record exists for each person in your chain, and where to order it.