Advance Directive vs Power of Attorney Manitoba: What Each Document Does

Two Documents, Two Completely Different Jobs

The most common advance planning mistake in Manitoba is assuming one document covers everything. It doesn't. Manitoba uses two separate legal instruments, governed by two different statutes, covering two non-overlapping domains:

Health Care Directive = medical decisions. Governed by The Health Care Directives Act (C.C.S.M. c. H27).

Enduring Power of Attorney = financial and property decisions. Governed by The Powers of Attorney Act (C.C.S.M. c. P97).

Your healthcare proxy cannot access your bank account. Your financial attorney cannot consent to surgery on your behalf. The documents don't cross over, and neither one can substitute for the other.

Side-by-Side Comparison

Why the Enduring Clause Matters So Much

Here's the critical difference most people miss: a standard power of attorney in Manitoba is automatically revoked when the donor loses mental capacity. It only becomes "enduring" — meaning it survives incapacity — if the document explicitly says so.

The Powers of Attorney Act requires a clear statement like: "I declare that this Power of Attorney may be exercised during any subsequent mental incompetence on my part."

Without this language, the power of attorney dies at the exact moment it's needed most. A parent with advancing dementia, a spouse after a severe stroke, a sibling in a coma — in all these scenarios, a standard (non-enduring) power of attorney is useless. The family's only option is a court-ordered committeeship, which typically costs $3,000 to $5,000 in legal fees and takes weeks or months.

Health Care Directives don't have this problem. There's no "enduring" clause requirement — a Health Care Directive is inherently designed to activate during incapacity. The asymmetry exists because the two statutes were drafted at different times with different protective philosophies.

What Happens If You Only Have One

Only a Health Care Directive (no EPA)

Your proxy can make medical decisions for you — consent to treatment, refuse treatment, choose comfort care, work with the clinical team on Goals of Care designations. But nobody has authority over your finances. Your mortgage goes unpaid, your bills accumulate, your investments sit unmanaged, and your bank freezes your accounts the moment they learn you're incapacitated. Your family has to apply to the Court of King's Bench for a committeeship to gain financial authority.

Only an Enduring Power of Attorney (no HCD)

Your attorney can manage your money, pay your bills, and handle your property. But your medical decisions fall to the applicable next-of-kin rules if no proxy has been named. If multiple people with the same priority disagree about your care (say, three adult children with different views on life support), the clinical team may need a formal care conference, a clinical ethics consultation, or ultimately court involvement. All because nobody was named as the authoritative medical decision-maker.

Neither document

Both problems at once. Your finances freeze. Your medical care defaults to whoever is next-of-kin, with no documented guidance about what you'd actually want. The Public Guardian and Trustee may step in to manage your affairs — charging percentage-based fees from your assets for the privilege.

Can the Same Person Serve in Both Roles?

Yes. There's no legal barrier to naming your spouse as both your healthcare proxy and your financial attorney. Many families do exactly this, with the same backup person named as alternate in both documents.

But there are reasons to consider different people for each role:

• Different skill sets. The person best suited to advocating firmly with a medical team about your treatment wishes may not be the best person to manage your investment portfolio, pay your taxes, and negotiate with your bank.
• Conflict of interest. In rare cases, a financial attorney who stands to inherit could have incentives that conflict with a healthcare proxy's duty to honour your medical wishes. Splitting the roles creates a natural check.
• Geography. Your healthcare proxy needs to be reachable by the hospital quickly. Your financial attorney can often handle things remotely through bank visits and paperwork.

For most families, naming the same person in both roles with the same backup is the simplest approach. The key is having both documents executed correctly — the Health Care Directive with your signature, the EPA with a qualified professional witness and the enduring clause.

The Manitoba Advance Directive & Living Will Kit walks through both documents together, including proxy and attorney appointment worksheets, the correct enduring clause language, and a witness eligibility checklist — because getting one right and the other wrong leaves the same gap as having neither.

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