Debt Write-off Regulations, 1994 (SOR/94-602)

6 No debt, or any part of a debt, shall be written off from the accounts of a department under subsection 4(1) unless

• (a) all reasonable collection action has been taken and all possible means of collection have been exhausted;

• (b) there is no possibility now or in the foreseeable future of collection through set-off; and

• (c) the appropriate Minister, or the officer referred to in section 4, is satisfied on reasonable grounds that

  • (i) the debtor is not resident in Canada, there are no apparent means of collecting the debt and there is no evidence that the debtor has a family or business concerns in Canada that could lead the debtor to return to Canada,

  • (ii) the debtor cannot be located,

  • (iii) evidence of the debt has been lost or destroyed and the debtor denies that a debt exists,

  • (iv) legal proceedings are statute-barred or the debt is otherwise legally unenforceable, the debtor has refused to pay and there are no apparent alternative means of enforcing payment or collecting the debt,

  • (v) the debtor is a corporation and the corporation is inoperative and without assets,

  • (vi) the debtor is an undischarged bankrupt corporation and

    • (A) the corporation is without assets and the trustee has been discharged, or

    • (B) the trustee has confirmed in writing that the trustee does not foresee any further payments to Her Majesty,

  • (vii) the debtor is an undischarged bankrupt individual and

    • (A) the trustee has been discharged, or

    • (B) the trustee has confirmed in writing that the trustee does not foresee any further payments to Her Majesty,

  • (viii) the debtor is deceased and there is no known estate, or

  • (ix) the debtor

    • (A) is incapable of repaying the debt, in whole or in part, as evidenced, among other things, by the debtor’s family income level being below the net monthly income level requiring payments from income toward debts, as stated in the guidelines on payments required from income issued periodically by the Superintendent of Bankruptcy,

    • (B) is not reasonably expected to have the capacity to repay the debt in the foreseeable future, and

    • (C) does not own or have an interest in mortgageable real or personal property, has not entered into a contract to purchase property under the Veterans’ Land Act and does not own financial assets that could be applied toward discharging the debt, in whole or in part.