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: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, when used to determine the amount of a child tax benefit, results in that portion of a child tax benefit determined under the description of C in subsection 122.61(1) of the Income Tax Act being more than $0, 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:For greater certainty

  (2.1) For greater certainty, 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).

• 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 or, if the beneficiary is 18 years of age or more, by 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.