Canada Education Savings Act

Marginal note:Canada Learning Bonds

• 6 (1) Subject to this Act and the regulations, on application to the Minister, in the form and manner approved by the Minister, the Minister may, in respect of a beneficiary under a registered education savings plan who was born after 2003 and is less than 21 years of age at the time of the application, pay to a trustee of a trust governed by the plan a Canada Learning Bond for the benefit of the trust. The bond is to be paid on any terms and conditions that the Minister may specify by agreement between the Minister and the trustee.

• Marginal note:Notice — automatic enrolment

  (1.1) If the Minister determines that a child born after 2023 would be eligible to have a Canada Learning Bond paid in their respect if they were a beneficiary under a registered education savings plan, the child’s Social Insurance Number is provided to the Minister and the child is not, to the Minister’s knowledge, a beneficiary under such a plan, the Minister must notify the child’s primary caregiver — in the form and manner that the Minister considers appropriate — that the child is eligible to have a Canada Learning Bond paid in their respect and that the Minister will open a registered education savings plan in respect of the child in accordance with subsections (1.2) and (1.3) for the purpose of paying the Canada Learning Bond.

• Marginal note:Opening of registered education savings plan by Minister

  (1.2) Subject to subsection (1.3), if the Minister determines that a child born after 2023 would be eligible to have a Canada Learning Bond paid in their respect if they were a beneficiary and the Minister is provided with the child’s Social Insurance Number, the Minister must open a registered education savings plan in respect of the child

  • (a) if the child is less than three years of age on the day the Minister determines that the child is eligible, no earlier than the day on which the child reaches the age of four or no earlier than any other day determined by the Minister; or

  • (b) if the child is three years of age or more on the day the Minister determines that the child is eligible, no earlier than the day that is 365 days after the day on which the Minister determines that the child is eligible or no earlier than any other day determined by the Minister.

• Marginal note:Exception

  (1.3) The Minister must not open a registered education savings plan in respect of a child under subsection (1.2) if the child’s primary caregiver or the primary caregiver’s cohabiting spouse or common-law partner has communicated to the Minister, in the form and manner approved by the Minister, their refusal of the payment of a Canada Learning Bond in respect of the child or if the child is a beneficiary.

• Marginal note:For greater certainty

  (1.4) For greater certainty, an application may be made to the Minister under subsection (1) in respect of a person even if a refusal referred to in subsection (1.3) was communicated to the Minister in respect of that person.

• Marginal note:Amount of bond

  (2) The amount of a Canada Learning Bond is equal to the sum of the following amounts:

  • (a) $500 in respect of the first benefit year in which the beneficiary is a person less than 15 years of age at the beginning of the month immediately before the benefit year, or is born during the benefit year or during the month immediately before it, and, for at least one month in that year,

    • (i) is a qualified dependant of an eligible individual whose adjusted income used to determine the amount of a Canada child benefit was,

      • (A) if the eligible individual has not more than three qualified dependants, less than or equal to the first threshold for the particular year in which the benefit year begins, or

      • (B) if the eligible individual has more than three qualified dependants, less than the amount determined in accordance with subsection (2.1), or

    • (ii) is a person in respect of whom a special allowance under the Children’s Special Allowances Act is payable, and

  • (b) $100 in respect of any subsequent benefit year in which the beneficiary is a person less than 15 years of age at the beginning of the month immediately before the benefit year and, for at least one month in that year, is a person to whom subparagraph (a)(i) or (ii) applies.

• Marginal note:Formula

  (2.1) For the purposes of clause (2)(a)(i)(B), the amount is determined by the formula

  A + [(B + C + (D × E))/Y]

  where

  A

  is the amount determined by the formula

  F — (B/0.122)

  where

  F

  is the first threshold for the particular year in which the benefit year begins, and

  B

  is $2,308.27,

  B

  is $2,308.27,

  C

  is $2,041.94,

  D

  is $1,942.55,

  E

  is the number of qualified dependants in excess of two, and

  Y

  is 0.333.

• Marginal note:Annual adjustment

  (2.2) The amounts expressed in dollars in subsection (2.1) are to be adjusted, as set out in section 117.1 of the Income Tax Act, for each particular year after 2016.

• Marginal note:Adjustment for a benefit year

  (2.3) The amounts adjusted under subsection (2.2) that are to be used in respect of a benefit year are those amounts so adjusted for the particular year in which that benefit year begins.

• Marginal note:Restriction

  (2.4) A Canada Learning Bond is, other than for the purposes of section 14 of the Canada Education Savings Regulations, not to be paid in respect of any beneficiary

  • (a) more than once in the beneficiary’s lifetime under paragraph 6(2)(a); and

  • (b) more than once in respect of a benefit year under paragraph 6(2)(b).

• Marginal note:Meaning of benefit year

  (3) In this section, benefit year means the period that starts on July 1 in one year and ends on June 30 of the next year.

• Marginal note:Designation

  (4) The amount of a bond in respect of a benefit year is to be paid to the trustee of a trust designated, in the form and manner approved by the Minister, by the primary caregiver of the beneficiary, the primary caregiver’s cohabiting spouse or common-law partner or, if the beneficiary is 18 years of age or more, the beneficiary.

• Marginal note:Additional payment

  (5) When the Minister pays the amount under paragraph (2)(a), the Minister may, in prescribed circumstances, pay into the trust an additional amount determined in accordance with the regulations in recognition of the cost of administering registered education savings plans.