Steps to take in the event of death

In general, a physician attests a death. The physician must also file and sign an attestation of death that will then be submitted to the funeral home chosen by family members.

To declare a death, the funeral home must send official documents to the Directeur de l'état civil (DEC) . Upon sending those documents, it is also possible to ask the DEC to provide documentary proof, such as a death certificate or a copy of an act of death that could facilitate the steps that must be taken by the heirs.

If the death occurred outside Québec, you can apply to the Directeur de l'état civil to have the act of death that was prepared outside Québec, inserted into the Québec register of civil status , under certain conditions.

The deceased may have been receiving a pension or a benefit paid by Retraite Québec, under:

• the Family Allowance program;
• the Québec Pension Plan;
• a public-sector pension plan.

If that is the case, Retraite Québec must be informed of a death as soon as possible where:

• the deceased was receiving a benefit paid by Retraite Québec, so that payments can be suspended, which will avoid family members having to reimburse overpayments after the death
• the deceased had a dependent child and was receiving Family Allowancepayments in his or her name, so that the person who will be responsible for the child can benefit from the Family Allowance measure.

If an application for survivors' benefits was filed with Retraite Québec a few days after a death, you can consider that Retraite Québec was notified of the death. Otherwise, you can always inform Retraite Québec of a death by contacting us by telephone.

The Québec Pension Plan, public-sector pension plans and supplemental pension plans provide for pensions or benefits that could be paid to the deceased's family members, that is, to his or her spouse, children, heirs and even to the person who paid the funeral expenses.

Retraite Québec designed a tool to help create a personalized list of pensions and benefits to which the deceased's family members could be entitled based on their personal situation

If the death occurred in Québec, the attestation of death issued by the funeral home is accepted as proof for an application for survivors' benefits filed with Retraite Québec.

The death certificate issued by the Directeur de l'état civil is also a document recognized as proof of death. In order to obtain it, the funeral home and the person who declared the death must both complete the Declaration of Death form. Please note that you could receive the certificate several weeks after sending the form.

Other proof or additional forms may be required, for example, in the event of a death outside Québec. They will be listed when you file your application for survivors' benefits.

Send your documents using the Sending a document online service.

If the deceased did not make sufficient contributions to the Québec Pension Plan, a special benefit for funeral expenses  could be paid by the Ministère de l'Emploi et de la Solidarité sociale.

Several other mandatory steps are to be taken with other departments and agencies. For more information, consult the Death  section on Québec.ca.