Columbia River-Revelstoke MLA (BC Liberals) MLA Doug Clovechok reintroduced a bill today that would allow married British Columbians to combine or hyphenate their surnames at no cost — the same way those can take their spouse’s name freely.

“British Columbians can easily take the last name of their spouse, but those who wish to hyphenate or combine surnames face a costly and time-consuming formal process,” said Clovechok. “This is a very small and simple change that would have positive impacts for countless B.C. couples.”

The Name Amendment Act was first tabled in 2019 by former BC Liberal MLA Mary Polak but the NDP government refused to call it for debate.

“The existing name change process with bureaucratic hurdles and fees disproportionately impacts women. It’s long overdue for this government to update the way it looks at name changes after marriage in the twenty-first century,” added Clovechok.

“Our proposed legislation reflects the realities of modern family structures and relationships in our province, and I sincerely hope the NDP government will finally consider adopting it to modernize an outdated name change process in desperate need of a refresh.

See: Name Amendment (Hyphenation) Act

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