Power of Attorney in Yukon, the Northwest Territories, and Nunavut

Yukon, the Northwest Territories, and Nunavut each have their own power of attorney law, and only Yukon and the Northwest Territories have a separate law for health and personal care decisions. Nunavut has no such law at all.

Information last verified on 2026-08-15. This article has not yet been reviewed by a licensed lawyer.

The territories are not a uniform bloc

It is tempting to treat "the territories" as a single block that mirrors whichever neighbouring province is closest, but that does not hold up. Nunavut has categorically no health-care-directive legislation, while Yukon has one of the more developed such regimes of any jurisdiction in this series, including a full statutory substitute-decision-maker priority ladder and a legal-advice gate for expanded proxy powers. This page covers each territory separately for that reason. For general background on how power of attorney works across Canada, see our guide to power of attorney in Canada.

Yukon

Yukon's financial instrument is governed by the Enduring Power of Attorney Act, RSY 2002, c.73. Its health and personal-care instrument is the Care Consent Act, enacted as Schedule B of the Decision Making, Support and Protection to Adults Act, SY 2003, c.21. The correct terms are "enduring power of attorney," with the holder called an attorney, for the financial document, and "directive," with the holder called a proxy, for the Care Consent Act document. Yukon does not use Alberta's term "personal directive" or British Columbia's term "representation agreement."

The enduring power of attorney: a lawyer path or a two-witness path

Yukon's Enduring Power of Attorney Act offers two alternative execution paths under section 3, since a 2020 amendment (SY 2020, c.12) added a lay-witness option alongside the original lawyer route: the document can be witnessed and signed by a lawyer who provides a certificate of legal advice, or it can be witnessed by two witnesses who are not required to be lawyers, accompanied by a certificate of witness signed by one of them. Either way, the document must be in writing, dated, and signed by the donor; it must state whether it continues despite later incapacity or takes effect on incapacity; and it must incorporate the Act's own statutory explanatory notes. The named attorney must separately accept the appointment in writing.

On the lawyer path, the lawyer's certificate must confirm that the donor attended in person, appeared to understand the document's nature and effect, is an adult, signed or directed signing in the lawyer's presence, acted voluntarily, and understood the statutory explanatory notes after the lawyer's own examination. This page has not independently verified the exact content the witness certificate must attest to on the lay-witness path. If the donor cannot sign, someone else may sign on the donor's behalf, but only in the presence of both the donor and the lawyer or witnesses, and that signer cannot be the attorney or, on the lawyer path, the certifying lawyer, or either of their spouses. The document is void if the donor was mentally incapable of understanding its nature and effect at the time of signing. Even the lay-witness path is more formal than the plain-signature witnessing used in most other jurisdictions in this series, since it still requires a signed witness certificate.

The Care Consent Act directive works differently

The Care Consent Act directive has no lawyer requirement. Anyone 16 or older who can understand the directive's nature and effect may make, change, or revoke one. The directive must be in writing, dated, and signed in the presence of two witnesses who are 19 or older, and neither witness may be a named proxy or a proxy's spouse. A defectively executed directive is not automatically void; a named proxy can apply to the Supreme Court for an order that the defect alone does not invalidate it.

Broader proxy powers, such as physically restraining or moving the maker despite objection, consenting to care over the maker's contemporaneous refusal, waiving the right to apply to the Capability and Consent Board over an incapability finding, or consenting to care otherwise excluded by regulation, are invalid unless the maker actually consulted a Yukon Law Society member or a lawyer licensed where the directive was made. This is a real-consultation requirement, not just a higher capacity test.

If there is no directive, a care provider must go down a ranked list to get substitute consent: a guardian with authority over the decision, a proxy under a directive that covers the care, then spouse, child, parent, grandparent, sibling, any other relative, and finally a close friend who signs a prescribed statement. Each qualifying person generally must be 19 or older, not incapable themselves, in contact with the person in the preceding 12 months, and free of a conflict that casts doubt on their ability to act. The Public Guardian and Trustee may not act as a proxy, a bar not found in the other jurisdictions covered in this series.

Taking effect, duties, and compensation

An EPOA may take effect at a future date or contingency, including incapacity. Named declarants, who can include the attorney, provide a written declaration confirming the contingency; absent a named or able declarant, two medical practitioners, or one medical practitioner and one nurse practitioner, can conclusively declare incapacity. The attorney may use the donor's property for the maintenance, education, benefit, and advancement of the donor's spouse and dependent children, including the attorney if they qualify.

Yukon's default is that an attorney may receive a fair and reasonable allowance from the donor's property for the care, trouble, and time spent acting, without needing express authorization in the document, similar to how the Trustee Act provides an allowance for an executor, trustee, or administrator. This is a genuinely different default from jurisdictions that allow compensation only if the document expressly says so.

An EPOA ends on written revocation by a capable donor, attorney renunciation with notice, a court termination order, the appointment of a guardian for the donor or attorney under Yukon's Adult Protection and Decision-Making Act, or the death of the donor or attorney. There is no marriage or relationship-breakdown trigger. (For how the territories recognize an unmarried partner more broadly, see our guide to common-law relationships in the territories.) A Care Consent Act directive is revocable by a capable maker through a later directive, a later revoking writing, or destruction of all originals with intent to revoke; a spouse's proxy appointment is automatically revoked on divorce or an annulled or voided marriage, unless the directive states otherwise.

No government filing or registration fee was found for creating either a Yukon EPOA or a Care Consent Act directive. If the lawyer path is used for the EPOA, a lawyer's own fee is a practical cost that the lay-witness path avoids; the lay-witness path instead needs a signed witness certificate but no lawyer's involvement.

Northwest Territories

The Northwest Territories' financial instrument is the Powers of Attorney Act, SNWT 2001, c.15. Its health and personal-care instrument is the Personal Directives Act, SNWT 2005, c.16. The maker of a personal directive is called a director, and the appointed decision maker is called an agent, terminology that is distinct from every other jurisdiction covered in this series.

Execution

A power of attorney is valid if the donor is an adult at execution and the document is in writing, dated, signed by the donor, or the donor acknowledges an existing signature, in a witness's presence, signed by the witness in the donor's presence, and states whether it is springing or enduring. Only one witness is required, and the only barred witnesses are the named attorney and the attorney's spouse. Capacity is assessed against a detailed seven-factor test covering the nature and value of the donor's property, obligations to dependants, that the attorney can do anything except make a will, the duty to account, revocability while capable, the risk of decline without prudent management, and the risk of misuse. A prescribed form may be used for a springing or enduring power of attorney but is not mandatory; its absence alone does not invalidate the document.

Only an adult, generally understood to mean 19 or older, may make a personal directive, and the maker is presumed to understand its nature and effect. A person already subject to a Guardianship and Trusteeship Act guardianship order may not make a directive on a matter the order already covers. The director and any named agent must sign in a witness's presence, and disqualified witnesses include the agent, the agent's spouse, the director's spouse, and anyone who signed on the director's behalf. An agent must be 19 or older, a natural person rather than a corporation, and capable of making personal decisions for the director. Unless the directive expressly says otherwise, an agent cannot authorize non-medically-necessary sterilization, tissue removal for transplant or research purposes, psychosurgery, or the director's participation in medical research without a reasonable likelihood of benefit.

A stricter rule for directives made elsewhere

The Northwest Territories treats an out-of-territory personal directive more strictly than most of the jurisdictions covered in this series. A directive made elsewhere has legal effect in the Northwest Territories only if a lawyer licensed in that other jurisdiction has certified in writing that it met that jurisdiction's own execution rules, or if the directive would independently have met the Northwest Territories' own requirements had it been made there. If neither condition is met, the directive has no legal effect in the Northwest Territories. The financial Powers of Attorney Act uses the more common, less demanding rule of being valid where made and stating the right survives-incapacity language, so the two Northwest Territories Acts genuinely differ from each other on this point.

Taking effect, duties, and compensation

A power of attorney may take effect at a future date or contingency. Named declarants, who can include the attorney, provide a written declaration; absent one, two medical practitioners or two psychologists may declare incapacity, and a court can resolve disputes. A personal directive, by contrast, takes effect only per-matter, once the director is found to lack capacity for that specific matter, confirmed by two qualified assessors.

The attorney may use the donor's property for the maintenance, education, benefit, and advancement of the donor's spouse and dependent children, including the attorney if they qualify, the same family-benefit default used in several provinces. Delegation is not allowed unless the document expressly authorizes it. The standard of care for an attorney is split by compensation: an uncompensated attorney must act with the prudence, discretion, and intelligence they would apply to their own affairs, while a compensated attorney is held to the higher standard of someone in the business of managing others' property. Accounting is owed to a named recipient on demand, or, if none is named or that person is unavailable or conflicted, annually to the donor's nearest relative. A personal directive can expressly authorize delegation of an agent's functions and can address payment to the agent, more explicitly than the equivalent instrument in several other jurisdictions.

Termination and fees

A power of attorney ends on revocation by the donor; a trusteeship order or mental-incompetence declaration under the Guardianship and Trusteeship Act; the donor's bankruptcy, unless the document states otherwise; the attorney's bankruptcy, incapacity, or death; the donor's death; or the attorney's renunciation, which requires court leave if the attorney is already acting under an active duty. There is no marriage-breakdown trigger. A personal directive can be revoked by a capable director through a stated triggering event, a contradicting later directive, or any writing meeting the Act's execution rules that expresses an intent to revoke.

No government filing or registration fee was found in either Act. The Powers of Attorney Act permits, but does not require, filing a copy with the Public Trustee.

Nunavut

Nunavut is the outlier of the three territories. It has only one instrument, the Powers of Attorney Act, S.Nu. 2005, c.9, and that instrument covers only the donor's property and financial interests. The Act itself splits this into a springing power of attorney, effective on a future date or contingency, and an enduring power of attorney, which survives later incapacity.

Nunavut has no Personal Directives Act, Health Care Directives Act, Care Consent Act, or any equivalent law. This was confirmed directly against the Nunavut Legislation website's own current consolidated statutes index, which lists no directives entry of any kind. A person in Nunavut cannot create a statutory advance health care directive or formally appoint a substitute health decision maker the way they could in Yukon or the Northwest Territories. The financial Powers of Attorney Act still works normally for property, and court-appointed guardianship under Nunavut's Guardianship and Trusteeship Act may remain an available route for health decisions, but that Act was not independently reviewed for this page and should not be assumed to fully replace the missing directive legislation.

Execution

A Nunavut power of attorney is valid if the donor has reached 19 at execution and the document is in writing, dated, signed in a witness's presence by the donor, or the donor later acknowledges the signature, signed by the witness in the donor's presence, and states whether it is springing or enduring. If the donor cannot read or sign, another person, other than the attorney or the attorney's spouse, may sign on the donor's behalf, at the donor's direction and in the donor's presence, with the donor then acknowledging the signature before a witness. Capacity is assessed against the same detailed seven-factor test used in the Northwest Territories. Only the attorney and the attorney's spouse are barred from witnessing. A prescribed form is mandatory only if the document will be filed in a land titles office; otherwise it is optional, and minor deviations that do not affect substance do not alone invalidate the document.

Taking effect, duties, and compensation

A power of attorney may take effect at a future date or contingency, using the same declarant-and-two-professional-declaration structure used in the Northwest Territories for confirming a contingency such as incapacity. The attorney may use the donor's property for the maintenance, education, benefit, and advancement of the donor's spouse and dependent children, including the attorney if they qualify, and may also use the donor's property to satisfy the donor's own legal support obligations to another person, including the attorney. An attorney may not make or amend a will on the donor's behalf, and delegation is not allowed unless expressly authorized.

The attorney must act honestly, in good faith, and in the donor's best interests, in accordance with the Act and its regulations, and is held to the same compensation-based two-tier standard of care used in the Northwest Territories. A person cannot act as attorney if they are a minor, mentally incapacitated, or an undischarged bankrupt, a simpler bar than some provinces use. Accounting is owed to a named recipient on demand; the Public Trustee may, but is not required to, direct an accounting where necessary or in the public interest.

Termination, fees, and an important currency caveat

A power of attorney ends on revocation by the donor; a trusteeship order or mental-incompetence declaration under the Guardianship and Trusteeship Act; the donor's bankruptcy, unless the document states otherwise; the attorney's bankruptcy, incapacity, or death; the donor's death; or the attorney's renunciation, which requires court leave if the attorney is already acting under an active duty. There is no marriage-breakdown trigger. No government filing or registration fee was found for creating the power of attorney. Filing an original or certified copy with the Public Trustee is permitted, not required, and the Public Trustee must maintain a register with restricted access.

Nunavut's own legislation website flags that its consolidated text of the Powers of Attorney Act is not fully up to date. A 2020 miscellaneous statutes amendment, S.Nu. 2020, c.15, s.142(3), is referenced but not reflected in the consolidation this page relies on. Treat the sections above as describing the 2005 as-enacted Act, and confirm against a current consolidation or CanLII before relying on any specific provision.

For general Canadian estate-planning background, see our guides to making a will in Canada, dying without a will in Canada, and probate in Canada. To compare the rules in a Canadian province, see our guides to power of attorney in British Columbia and power of attorney in Alberta, whose capacity-test drafting is closely related to the Northwest Territories' and Nunavut's Acts.

Disclaimer

This article provides general information about powers of attorney and, where they exist, health and personal-care directives in Yukon, the Northwest Territories, and Nunavut, and is not legal advice. Several points are flagged as unconfirmed rather than stated as fact: whether the Care Consent Act contains its own gift or compensation provisions distinct from the EPOA; the exact statutory citation confirming that the Northwest Territories Powers of Attorney Act uses the same 19-year age of majority stated in the Personal Directives Act; whether the Northwest Territories Powers of Attorney Act contains a gift-authorization section; the content of the 2020 Nunavut amendment (S.Nu. 2020, c.15, s.142(3)) not reflected in the consolidation used here; and whether Nunavut's Guardianship and Trusteeship Act provides any health-care-specific mechanism for a substitute decision maker. None of the three territorial fee schedules for filing or registration was independently priced from an official government fee page. Execution rules, forms, and fees change; confirm current requirements with the territorial Public Trustee's office, the relevant territorial government, or a licensed lawyer before signing or relying on any of these documents.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Nunavut have a law for health care directives?

No. Nunavut's Powers of Attorney Act covers only property and financial interests. This was confirmed directly against the Nunavut Legislation website's own current statutes index, which contains no directives entry of any kind. Nunavut has no Personal Directives Act, Health Care Directives Act, Care Consent Act, or equivalent law.

Does a Yukon enduring power of attorney need a lawyer?

Not necessarily. Yukon's Enduring Power of Attorney Act offers two execution paths: the document can be accompanied by a certificate of legal advice signed by a lawyer who is not the attorney or the attorney's spouse, or it can be witnessed by two lay witnesses who are not required to be lawyers, accompanied by a certificate of witness signed by one of them. The lay-witness alternative was added to the Act by a 2020 amendment, SY 2020, c.12. Even on the lay-witness path, Yukon's certificate requirement is more formal than the plain-signature witnessing used in most other jurisdictions in this series.

What is the difference between an attorney, a proxy, and an agent in the territories?

The terms differ by territory and by which instrument is being used. Yukon calls a financial power-of-attorney holder an attorney and a Care Consent Act decision maker a proxy. The Northwest Territories calls a financial power-of-attorney holder an attorney and a Personal Directives Act decision maker an agent, with the maker of that directive called a director. Nunavut uses attorney for its single financial instrument and has no separate health-care role or title.

Can a Yukon attorney be paid without the power of attorney document saying so?

Yes. Yukon's Enduring Power of Attorney Act lets an attorney receive a fair and reasonable allowance from the donor's property without needing express authorization in the document, similar to how the Trustee Act provides an allowance for an executor or trustee. This is the opposite default from jurisdictions where compensation is unavailable unless the document expressly authorizes it.

Is Nunavut's Powers of Attorney Act fully current?

Not confirmed. Nunavut's own legislation website states that its consolidation of the Powers of Attorney Act is not up to date and flags a 2020 miscellaneous amendment, S.Nu. 2020, c.15, s.142(3), that is not reflected in the text. Confirm against a current consolidation or CanLII before relying on a specific provision.

Who makes health care decisions for someone in Nunavut who has no directive?

Because Nunavut has no health care directive legislation, there is no statutory directive to make in the first place. Court-appointed guardianship under Nunavut's Guardianship and Trusteeship Act may be an available route, but the details of that process were not reviewed for this page. Speak with a lawyer in Nunavut about the actual process in a specific case.