If you're going through a separation in Ontario, one of the most common questions is: how long am I going to be paying (or receiving) spousal support? The honest answer is that it depends. Payments can last months, years, or indefinitely. But before you panic at the word "indefinitely," it's worth clearing something up right away: indefinite does not mean forever. It simply means that no end date has been set. Payments continue until some unspecified future point, not until the end of time.
So how does a court actually land on a duration? There are several factors at play, but the single biggest one is almost always the same: how long did the marriage last?
Courts and family lawyers generally sort marriages into three buckets based on length:
Where a marriage falls on that spectrum shapes everything that follows, including a concept known as the "rule of 65."
The rule of 65 comes from the Spousal Support Advisory Guidelines (SSAG), and it's one of the more useful shortcuts for figuring out whether support should be indefinite. Here's how it works: take the length of the relationship and add it to the age of the spouse who would be receiving support. If that number equals or exceeds 65, the assumption is that support should be indefinite.
A quick example: John and Jane get married at 55. They stay together for 10 years before separating. Add the relationship length to the recipient's age 10 + 55 = 65 and you've hit the threshold. The starting assumption becomes that support should be indefinite.
There's also a separate, simpler rule that applies regardless of age: if a marriage lasted 20 years or more, the assumption is again that spousal support should be indefinite. Age doesn't factor in here, length alone does the work.
On the other end of the spectrum are short-term marriages, generally, marriages of five years or less. For these, the typical approach is that support lasts somewhere between half the length of the relationship and the full length of the relationship. So if John and Jane had only been married for four years, the range for support would likely fall between two and four years.
Short-term marriages come with an important exception: the rule of 65 doesn't apply to them. Even if John and Jane were both 61 when they separated after four years together, the math wouldn't push the outcome toward indefinite support. The relationship simply hasn't lasted long enough to trigger that assumption, regardless of the parties' ages.
The real complexity shows up with medium-term marriages, those lasting somewhere between 6 and 19 years. This range sits in a kind of legal no-man's-land: too long to be treated like a short-term marriage, too short to trigger the automatic assumptions that apply to long-term ones. As a result, there's no built-in presumption about how long support should last. Instead, the analysis becomes much more fact-specific, and courts will look closely at the actual circumstances of the marriage, including:
This isn't an exhaustive list, but it gives a sense of the kinds of arguments that come up in court when trying to shorten or extend the support period. If a spouse is unable to work whether due to disability, a lack of marketable skills, limited work experience, or time out of the workforce, that tends to strengthen the case for a longer or more substantial support order.
At the end of the day, the real question courts are trying to answer is simple in concept, even if it's difficult in practice: what does the recipient actually need, and for how long will that need reasonably continue? The answer looks very different depending on the couple. A spouse who stayed home for 20 years raising children is in a fundamentally different position than one who worked a demanding, high-paying career throughout the entire marriage, even if both marriages lasted the same number of years.
These fact-specific questions matter in every case, but they carry the most weight precisely when there's no clean assumption, like the rule of 65 or the 20-year rule, for the court to lean on.
It's worth repeating: "indefinite" doesn't mean "forever." It just means no end date was set at the outset. So if you're on the paying end of an indefinite order, you're probably wondering how those payments can eventually come to an end. The short answer is that support orders can be varied over time as circumstances change. For instance, if the recipient's financial situation improves, if they re-enter the workforce, or if there's a significant change in either party's income or health. Every case is different, and a variation isn't automatic; it typically requires either an agreement between the parties or an application back to the court. If you are interested in learning more about how changing circumstances can affect an existing support order, read our guide to varying, reducing or terminating spousal support in Ontario.
It's important to keep some perspective on the SSAG. While these guidelines carry a lot of weight and heavily influence how judges approach spousal support, they are exactly what their name suggests: guidelines, not legislation. Courts are not bound to follow them, and they will depart from the SSAG ranges whenever sticking to them would produce an unjust result. Think of the SSAG as a strong starting point for negotiations and court decisions, not a rigid formula that guarantees a particular outcome.
If you're navigating a separation and trying to figure out where your own situation might land, INB Family law has family law lawyers with experience who can walk through the specifics of your marriage and circumstances with you. Reach out now to book a consultation.