23. The benefit period means the period within which benefits may be paid.
The benefit period shall begin the week in which the first benefit is payable to the person entitled thereto and end the week in which the last benefit is payable. It may not exceed the 78th week following the week of birth or the week of the arrival of the child into the care of one of the parents for the purpose of the adoption, unless it is extended in accordance with the regulations of the Conseil de gestion.
In the case of a surrogacy project, unless it is extended in accordance with the regulations of the Conseil de gestion, the benefit period for the parents who are parties to the parental project involving surrogacy may not exceed the 78th week following the week in which the child is entrusted to one of the parents. Where the filiation of the child born in the context of the surrogacy project is established in accordance with the rules of filiation by acknowledgement or by blood, the benefit period for the woman or the person who gave birth to the child may not exceed the 78th week following, as applicable, the week of the child’s birth if the child was not entrusted to the parents who are parties to the parental project involving surrogacy or, if the child was entrusted to them, the week in which they subsequently entrust the child to the woman or the person who gave birth to the child, unless the benefit period is extended in accordance with the regulations of the Conseil de gestion.
The circumstances in which the benefit period may be extended or end shall be fixed in a regulation of the Conseil de gestion, but a benefit period may not, once extended, exceed 104 weeks.
2001, c. 9, s. 23; 2005, c. 13, s. 15; 2020, c. 232020, c. 23, s. 171; 2023, c. 132023, c. 13, s. 4611.