Does the limitation period restart if a company is bought out or merges with another in Ontario?

Generally, no — a corporate buyout, merger, or amalgamation doesn't restart the limitation clock for claims that already existed against the original company before the transaction took place. Where a successor company takes on the liabilities of the original one, whether through amalgamation or an agreement to assume its obligations, it generally steps into the same position the original company was in, including being subject to the same limitation period that had already been running, not a fresh clock starting from the date of the corporate change.

This matters for claimants who may not immediately realize a company they have a claim against has changed hands or merged into a different corporate structure, since the underlying limitation period doesn't pause or reset just because the corporate identity on the other side changed. It also matters for claimants trying to work out exactly who to sue, since amalgamations and corporate restructurings can genuinely make it harder to identify the correct current legal entity responsible for an older obligation. Where a claim involves a company that has gone through a corporate change, confirming the correct successor entity and the original discoverability date, rather than assuming either has shifted, is an important early step.