How To Convert Your Canadian Judgment Into Other Currencies: The Foreign Money Claims Act

Given that Canada, and BC in particular, has an economy driven largely by international trade, it will come as no surprise that many of those transactions are conducted in currencies other than the Canadian dollar. What happens when you need to sue in Canada over a contract that deals in, for example, US dollars or Japanese Yen? How and when do the courts address the conversion of foreign currencies?

In BC, this issue is addressed by the Foreign Money Claims Act (FMCA). It provides the courts with authority to order that a judgment be stated in the amount of Canadian currency necessary to purchase the appropriate amount of "the other currency" based on the exchange rate of "a chartered bank located in British Columbia at the close of business on the conversion date." The test applied by the courts to invoke the FMCA is whether a judgment creditor will be "most truly and exactly compensated if all or part of the money payable" ought to be in a "currency other than the