Amendments to British Columbia Adult Guardianship Legislation Introduced

The Attorney General of British Columbia, Wally Oppal, introduced Bill 29 in the Legislative Assembly last week. The new legislation is intended to replace the Patients Property Act with more modern legislation. If passed, Bill 29 will also make changes to legislation relating to powers of attorney, representation agreements, and it will authorize advance directives.

According to the Ministry of Attorney General press release,

"The new guardianship law strikes an improved balance between protection and selfdetermination for adults who have guardians,” said Public Guardian and Trustee Jay Chalke, Q.C. “The replacement of the old Patients Property Act with this new law allows all guardians to better implement modern adult guardianship principles of autonomy, procedural fairness and the use of the least restrictive and intrusive form of support.”

The act enhances incapacity planning options by strengthening and clarifying representation agreements and enduring powers of attorney. The act also introduces an additional planning option, called an advance directive, for health-care decisions. Advance directives give British Columbians another choice for communicating their health-care wishes.