SAAQ, Hydro-Quebec, and EPQ Power of Attorney: Agency-by-Agency Proxy Guide

Your parent can no longer drive to the SAAQ office. Their Hydro-Quebec bill is overdue because nobody has account access. And the Épargne Placements Québec savings bonds are about to mature with no instructions on file. Each of these provincial agencies has its own proxy system, and a general power of attorney won't cut it at any of them.

SAAQ: Vehicle Transfer and Registration Changes

The Société de l'assurance automobile du Québec requires a specific SAAQ procuration form to handle vehicle transactions on behalf of another person. A general power of attorney document — even one drafted by a notary — is routinely rejected at SAAQ service centres because the agency requires its own standardized authorization format.

The SAAQ procuration allows you to transfer vehicle ownership, renew registration, change the address on file, and handle insurance-related administrative tasks. Your parent must sign the SAAQ-specific form while they still have mental capacity. Once the SAAQ receives notice that your parent is incapacitated — or once you present documents suggesting cognitive decline — the procuration becomes unenforceable, just like any standard Quebec power of attorney.

If your parent has already lost capacity and their vehicle registration needs to be renewed or the car sold to fund care costs, you need a homologated protection mandate that specifically covers property administration. Without it, the vehicle sits registered in your parent's name, potentially accruing insurance premiums and registration fees that nobody can legally manage.

Hydro-Quebec: Procuration vs Consentement

Hydro-Quebec distinguishes between two levels of account authorization, and confusing them creates delays that leave bills unpaid.

Consentement (Consent) gives you read-only access. You can view the account balance, check consumption data, and see billing history through the Hydro-Quebec client portal. This is the lighter option — it lets you monitor whether bills are being paid without giving you the ability to change anything.

Procuration (Power of Attorney) gives you full transactional authority. You can modify the payment method, set up or cancel pre-authorized payments, change the mailing address, transfer the account to a new property, and negotiate payment arrangements if the account falls into arrears.

Most families start with consentement because they assume they only need to monitor things. Then the first overdue notice arrives, and they discover they can't set up a payment plan or update the banking information without a full procuration on file. Submit the procuration form from the start if your parent's capacity is declining. You can do this through Hydro-Quebec's residential client portal or by contacting customer service.

The critical timing issue is the same as with every Quebec proxy arrangement: Hydro-Quebec's procuration only works while your parent has mental capacity. If your parent is already incapacitated, you'll need to present the homologated protection mandate judgment to Hydro-Quebec before they'll grant you account access.

Épargne Placements Québec: The Five-Year Expiry Trap

Épargne Placements Québec (EPQ) manages Quebec Savings Bonds, Flex-Term Savings, and other provincial investment products. EPQ uses its own proprietary limited power of attorney form, and it comes with a rule that catches families off guard: the authorization expires after a maximum of five years and does not automatically renew.

If your parent set up an EPQ power of attorney six years ago, it has already lapsed. You won't discover this until you try to redeem a maturing bond or update account information, at which point EPQ will refuse the transaction. Your parent would need to sign a new EPQ authorization form — impossible if they've since lost capacity.

For families in the planning stage, the fix is straightforward: include EPQ account management in the property section of a protection mandate, and separately file the current EPQ power of attorney form. When the protection mandate is eventually homologated, it overrides the EPQ form's expiry limitation because court-ordered authority supersedes agency-specific authorizations.

For families whose parent has already lost capacity with an expired EPQ form, the homologated protection mandate is the only path to regain access to those investments.

Building an Agency Proxy Checklist

Quebec's agency-by-agency proxy system means a single power of attorney document is never sufficient. Each institution demands its own form, and each has its own rules about what the proxy covers.

A complete agency proxy setup for an aging parent typically includes:

• SAAQ procuration for any vehicles registered in the parent's name
• Hydro-Quebec procuration (not just consentement) for utility account management
• EPQ limited power of attorney for provincial investment products, with the renewal date calendared
• MR-69-V form for Revenu Quebec tax file access
• Retraite Quebec power of attorney for QPP pension management

All of these are capability-phase documents — they work only while your parent can consent. The protection mandate, once homologated, replaces them all with court-authorized authority. But homologation takes six to twelve months, and during that gap, having the agency-specific forms already on file prevents service interruptions.

The Quebec Power of Attorney & Personal Directive Kit includes an agency proxy tracker that maps each provincial institution to its required form, filing method, and renewal timeline, so nothing expires unnoticed while you're managing your parent's care.

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