Ontario. Office of the Public Trustee

• Office of the Public Trustee

• Public Trustee's Branch

Until the passage of the Ministry of the Attorney General Act (1972) these functions were carried out by the Public Trustee's Branch of the Administration of Justice Division. In 1973 it was merged with the Office of the Public Trustee as part of the new ministry. A year later it became a separate branch of the Crown Law Office, but in 1975 the Office of the Public Trustee was moved to Common Legal Services, later renamed the Crown Law Office - Civil.

In 1979, the Public Trustee's Branch (along with the Official Guardian's Branch and the Common Legal Services Branch) was moved to the Civil Law Division, which was established in 1977 after the civil and criminal responsibilities of the Crown Law Office were divided.

The Office of the Public Trustee remained in the Civil Law Division until 1997, when the Division was abolished. At this point, the Office of the Public Trustee became the Office of the Public Guardian & Trustee in the newly created Social Justice Services Division.

The Office of the Public Trustee was responsible for the administration of assets for a broad spectrum of the population, including: those individuals considered incompetent to manage their financial affairs under the terms of the Mental Health Act and the Developmental Services Act; under the Crown Administration of Estates Act, the intestate estates of persons without living adult heirs residing in the province; to act as trustee under federal and provincial legislation including the Family Benefits Act; and to ensure compliance with the Charities Accounting Act and Charitable Gifts Act in the administration of charitable trusts. The Office was also responsible for the administration of assets forfeited to the Crown and the funds deposited for the perpetual care of cemetery plots. The Public Trustee was also empowered to make inquiries concerning real estate that had escheated (i.e., land whose ownership had defaulted back to the Crown), or in which the Crown in right of Ontario may have been interested.

The Public Trustee also acted as a last resort substitute decision maker for all medical or dental treatment prescribed for patients who were unable to consent to such treatment by reason of mental incapacity as defined under the Public Hospitals Act. The Office also served as litigation guardian to persons involved in court proceedings who, by reason of incompetency, were unable to instruct their counsel.

The Public Trustee had a variety of duties relating to financial matters, and was required to have legal training.

Mental Health Act

Developmental Services Act

Crown Administration of the Estates Act

Family Benefits Act

Charities Accounting Act

Charitable Gifts Act

2026-11-16: migrated to AtoM

Inventory 4 (Intro)

MAG-14 schedule and ADF

Ministry of the Attorney General annual reports

Government of Ontario telephone directories, 1975-1997

KWIK Indexes, 1993-1997

Archivist(s):
Coulter