Is compensation for a surrogate legal in Ontario, and does it affect the parentage agreement?

Federal law governs what can and can't be paid in a surrogacy arrangement in Canada, and it prohibits paying a surrogate a fee for acting as a surrogate — surrogacy itself must be altruistic. What is generally permitted is reimbursement of the surrogate's reasonable expenses connected to the pregnancy, such as documented medical, travel, and related costs, within the framework set by federal law. Because this is a federal rule enforced separately from Ontario's parentage process, intended parents should get advice on what expense reimbursement is actually permitted before finalizing any financial arrangement.

A properly structured expense-reimbursement arrangement does not, on its own, prevent the surrogacy agreement from supporting Ontario's parentage process — the two issues, whether payments are lawful and whether the parentage agreement meets Ontario's requirements, are assessed separately. However, an arrangement that improperly pays a surrogate a fee rather than reimbursing genuine expenses risks legal consequences under federal law, so getting the financial side right matters both for compliance and for the parentage process to go smoothly.