NEWS / Canada Post strike causes delays in British Columbia marriage certificate applications

Individuals who got married in the Canadian Province of British Columbia are having trouble receiving their marriage certificate due to a strike by Canada Post, the country’s national mail service. In order to receive the certificate, couples are normally required to submit marriage licenses through a marriage commissioner or officiant, who forwards the license to the British Columbia Vital Statistics Agency. Newlywed couples then receive their marriage certificates in the mail.

Officiant Bryan Olynick was quoted by City News Everywhere as saying that the Vital Statistics Agency has instructed officiants to either mail in the licenses submitted by couples or to hold onto them until the strikes passes. He complained about the poor and ambiguous instructions he received from Victoria and said he has a stack of licenses yet to be submitted at home.

“Right now, with the postal strike, if you were to mail the marriage license, it’s going to get held up in the mail, as is everything,” another officiant, Tract Ann Kerr, was quoted as saying, “You don’t want it sitting in a full mailbox, I don’t think that’s a good idea, I would rather have it and mail it once the mail starts moving.”

The problem is that while couples can still get married in British Columbia, they cannot make any legal changes, including filing a name change, until they have received their marriage certificate.

Olynick noted that officiants in the neighboring Canadian Province of Alberta were allowed to submit licenses as a fax or scan, but that this option was not available in British Columbia.

The British Columbia Ministry of Health stated that it has activated its “mail services contingency plan” to mitigate the effects of the Canada Post strike. They noted that individuals applying for rush service would be contacted directly by the Vital Statistics Agency to arrange for a pickup of their marriage certificate at an available Service BC (a universal provincial government services offices) location nearest to them.