Pecuniary loss represents the financial dimension of harm in tort law, encompassing every measurable economic consequence that flows from a defendant's wrongful conduct. When a person suffers injury due to another's negligence, breach of statutory duty, or intentional wrongdoing, the law distinguishes between losses that can be calculated in dollars and those that resist such quantification. The former category, pecuniary loss, includes income that the plaintiff would have earned but for the injury, the costs of care and rehabilitation required to address the injury's effects, and the various out-of-pocket expenses that accumulate from the moment of harm through recovery and beyond. Canadian courts approach pecuniary damages with the fundamental principle that compensation should restore the plaintiff, as nearly as money can achieve, to the position they would have occupied had the tort not occurred. This restitutionary objective guides every calculation, from determining what wages a self-employed contractor lost during months of recovery to projecting what a young professional might have earned over a forty-year career now foreclosed by permanent disability.
The foundation for pecuniary damages in Canadian tort law emerges from both common law principles applied across most provinces and the civil law framework governing Quebec under the Civil Code of Quebec. In common law provinces including British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Ontario, the assessment of pecuniary loss follows judicially developed doctrines refined over decades of appellate decisions establishing methodologies for calculating past losses and projecting future ones. Quebec's approach, while reaching similar practical outcomes in many instances, derives from articles within the Civil Code of Quebec that codify the obligation to compensate for material prejudice, which encompasses economic losses resulting from bodily injury or damage to property. As of the date of authorship, these frameworks share the core commitment to full compensation while differing in certain procedural and evidentiary aspects that practitioners must navigate depending on where litigation occurs.