Representation Agreement BC: What It Is and How It Works

If you had a stroke tomorrow and couldn't speak for yourself, who would tell the doctors what you want? In British Columbia, the answer is either someone you've legally appointed in advance — or a relative picked from a government hierarchy who may not be the person you'd choose.

The legal tool for making that appointment in BC is the representation agreement, created under the Representation Agreement Act. It's the province's equivalent of what other places call a "healthcare power of attorney" or "healthcare proxy" — but with terminology and rules that are unique to British Columbia.

What a Representation Agreement Actually Does

A representation agreement lets a capable adult (the law calls you "the adult") name a representative — a trusted person who can make health care and personal care decisions on your behalf if you become incapable of making them yourself.

That includes decisions like:

• Consenting to or refusing surgery and other major medical treatments
• Deciding where you live, including moves into care facilities
• Day-to-day personal care choices: diet, dress, activities, visitors
• End-of-life care decisions, including refusing life-prolonging treatment (with the right type of agreement)

You can also name an alternate representative who steps in if your first choice can't act, and the agreement can spell out instructions and wishes your representative must follow.

What a representation agreement does not do — and this trips up a lot of people — is give anyone authority over your money. Financial and legal affairs in BC require a completely separate document, an Enduring Power of Attorney, made under the Power of Attorney Act. An attorney under an EPOA has zero standing to make medical decisions, and a representative (with one limited exception below) can't touch your finances.

Section 7 vs Section 9: The Two Types

The Representation Agreement Act creates two tiers of agreement, and choosing the wrong one is the single most common planning mistake in BC.

Section 9 (RA9) is the comprehensive version, for adults who currently have full mental capacity. It grants broad substitute decision-making power over all health and personal care matters — including the authority to refuse life support and decide on care facility placement. It excludes financial matters entirely.

Section 7 (RA7) is BC's supported decision-making tool, designed for adults whose capacity is already in question — early dementia, a developmental disability, the aftermath of a brain injury. There's no traditional capacity test: an adult can sign an RA7 even if they couldn't manage their own affairs or sign a contract, as long as they can communicate a desire to have a representative and show trust in that person. An RA7 covers routine finances (paying bills, basic banking), personal care, and minor or routine health care — but the representative cannot refuse life-prolonging treatment or deal with real estate.

The trap: families sometimes draft an RA9 for a parent who already shows cognitive decline. If the adult didn't fully understand the document's nature and consequences at signing, the RA9 is legally invalid — discovered, usually, at the hospital bedside. If capacity is in doubt, an RA7 is almost always the right instrument. We break the distinction down in detail in our Section 7 vs Section 9 comparison.

Who Can Be Your Representative

Almost any capable adult you trust: a spouse, adult child, sibling, or close friend. Two restrictions matter:

• A paid caregiver (someone who provides you personal or health care for compensation) generally can't be your representative
• If an RA7 covers routine finances, you must appoint a monitor to oversee the representative — unless your sole representative is your spouse, or you appoint two representatives who must act jointly

Choose someone who will actually be available in a crisis, who understands your values, and who can hold their ground in a stressful hospital conversation. Then name an alternate.

Signing and Witnessing Rules

Representation agreements must be signed on paper, in wet ink — electronic signatures are not valid for these documents in BC. You need either:

• Two witnesses who are each 19 or older, or
• One witness who is a BC lawyer or notary public

Witnesses cannot be your representative or alternate, their spouse, child, or parent, or anyone paid to care for you. Getting this wrong invalidates the document — disqualified witnesses are one of the most common execution errors.

Remote witnessing over video is allowed, but only with a BC lawyer or notary as the witness, signing identical paper copies in counterpart.

Where to Get a Representation Agreement Form in BC

The provincial government publishes standard RA7 and RA9 forms, and the non-profit Nidus Personal Planning Resource Centre provides its own well-regarded versions. You don't legally need a lawyer to make a valid agreement — what you need is the right form for your situation, completed and witnessed correctly.

Once signed, store the original somewhere safe and tell your representative exactly where it is. Many people also register it with the Nidus Personal Planning Registry (about $25 for the first document) so hospital staff can retrieve it in an emergency.

The British Columbia Advance Directive & Living Will Kit walks through the full process: choosing between RA7 and RA9, selecting and briefing your representative, getting the witnessing right the first time, and pairing the agreement with the other documents BC law requires for complete coverage.

The Cost of Skipping This

Without a representation agreement, BC's fallback system takes over. For health care, clinicians work down the Temporary Substitute Decision Maker list — spouse, then adult children, then parents, then siblings. For finances, there's no default at all: your family has to apply to the Supreme Court for a committeeship order, a process that starts around $7,500 in legal fees plus medical affidavits and a $525 Public Guardian and Trustee review fee.

A representation agreement costs an afternoon. A committeeship costs thousands and months of delay — while someone else's crisis sits in a court queue.

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