“In Nova Scotia (Attorney General) v. Walsh, 2002 SCC 83, 221 D.L.R. (4th) 1, the Supreme Court of Canada upheld Nova Scotia’s legislation that provides equalization to married spouses but not to common law spouses. The court stated, at para. 54:
[The Nova Scotia legislation] is primarily directed at regulating the relationship between the parties to the marriage itself; parties who, by marrying, must be presumed to have a mutual intention to enter into an economic partnership. Unmarried cohabitants, however, have not undertaken a similar unequivocal act. I cannot accept that the decision to live together, without more, is sufficient to indicate a positive intention to contribute to and share in each other’s assets and liabilities. It may very well be true that some, if not many, unmarried cohabitants have agreed as between themselves to live as economic partners for the duration of their relationship . . . . It does not necessarily follow, however, that these same persons would agree to restrict their ability to deal with their own property during the relationship or to share in all of the other’s assets and liabilities following the end of the relationship.
Accordingly, there is no presumption that the net family property of common law spouses should be equalized upon breakdown of the relationship.”