Skip Tracing Services in Ontario: What a Trace Finds

In Ontario, skip tracing — the professional process of locating a person whose current address or contact information is unknown — is a licensed investigative service regulated under the Private Security and Investigative Services Act, 2005, S.O. 2005, c. 34 (PSISA). Anyone who conducts skip tracing for remuneration without holding a valid provincial PI licence commits an offence under s. 6 of the Act.

This guide explains what a licensed skip trace can and cannot find, which statutes govern the process, how an investigation unfolds in Ontario, and what determines whether a location report is useful in civil proceedings.

What skip tracing is: a working definition

Skip tracing is the systematic, licensed process of locating a person whose current whereabouts are unknown. In Ontario, the investigator uses legally accessible records — public registries, court filings, open-source digital sources, and regulated databases — to establish a subject’s current address, employment, or contact information. The term derives from the phrase “to skip” (meaning to leave without notice) and “tracing” (meaning to track through records).

It is not surveillance. Skip tracing is record-driven location work. The investigator does not physically follow the subject, install tracking devices, or intercept communications. Under PSISA, s. 2, a private investigator is defined as a person who investigates on behalf of another for the purpose of obtaining information with respect to the identity, location, or activities of a person. A skip trace falls squarely within that definition and requires a provincial PI licence.

What law governs skip tracing in Ontario

Three layers of law govern a licensed PI conducting a skip trace in Ontario.

The first is provincial licensing. Under s. 6 of the Private Security and Investigative Services Act, 2005, no person shall act as a private investigator unless they hold the appropriate licence issued by the Ministry of the Solicitor General. Skip tracing is investigative work and falls squarely within the PSISA licensing requirement. Under s. 45(1), an individual convicted of unlicensed practice is liable to a fine of up to $25,000, imprisonment for up to one year, or both. A corporation faces a fine of up to $250,000.

The second is federal privacy law. Under s. 7(1)(b) of the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), S.C. 2000, c. 5, an organization may collect personal information without the individual’s knowledge or consent when it is reasonable to expect that obtaining consent would compromise the availability or accuracy of the information — and the collection is reasonable for purposes related to investigating a breach of an agreement or a contravention of the laws of Canada or a province. Under s. 7(1)(d), personal information that is publicly available and specified by the PIPEDA regulations (SOR/2001-7) may be collected without consent.

The third layer is the OPC’s Interpretation Bulletin on Publicly Available Information, which identifies five categories of information that investigators may collect without consent under PIPEDA’s SOR/2001-7: telephone directory listings where the subscriber may opt out; professional and business directory listings; information in statutory registries open to public access; publicly available judicial and quasi-judicial records; and information published in magazines, books, or newspapers that the individual voluntarily provided. Each category requires that the collection purpose align directly with the purpose for which the information appeared in that source.

What a skip trace can find — and what it cannot

A licensed Ontario skip tracer may lawfully access and cross-reference records within the five SOR/2001-7 categories. Accessible sources include:

• Telephone directory records and business directory listings open to public access
• Publicly available judicial records, including court filings, Small Claims judgments, and tribunal decisions
• Ontario Business Registry entries, which reveal corporate directorships and registered office addresses
• Personal Property Security Act (PPSA) registrations, which reveal security interests or liens registered against a subject’s personal property — including vehicles — and can confirm an address or employer connection
• Professional and business directory listings published for public access

What a licensed skip tracer cannot access:

• A subject’s full credit file. Under the Consumer Reporting Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. C.33, access to a consumer report requires a recognized permissible purpose under s. 8(1) — such as a credit transaction initiated by the consumer or a court order. A skip trace mandate alone does not constitute a permissible purpose for a full credit pull. Investigators typically access only the publicly available information layers rather than full credit histories.
• Private database records that require authentication or compulsion authority. A licensed PI has no power to compel disclosure from private databases. That authority belongs to police and court orders only.

Who commissions skip tracing in Ontario

Skip tracing in Ontario is commissioned across several distinct groups:

• Debt-recovery lawyers and creditors seeking to locate judgment debtors before enforcement proceedings. Ontario victims reported $219.1 million in fraud losses to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre in 2024, according to the CAFC 2024 Annual Statistical Report. That volume of unrecovered loss creates direct demand for judgment-enforcement skip tracing. For the full Canadian fraud loss breakdown, see our fraud statistics in Canada research post.
• Estate lawyers locating heirs, beneficiaries, or parties to an estate who have relocated or lost contact
• Family law clients locating a spouse or co-parent who has moved without providing a forwarding address
• Businesses and process servers seeking to locate a party whose address is unknown before serving legal process

Canada recorded 68,349 missing persons in 2025 — with 7,532 missing adults in Ontario alone, according to the RCMP NCMPUR 2025 Fast Fact Sheet. Licensed PIs conducting skip traces for families of missing adults represent one distinct commissioning group. For the full provincial and demographic breakdown, see our compilation of missing persons statistics in Canada.

How a licensed skip trace investigation unfolds in Ontario

A licensed Ontario PI conducting a skip trace must comply with both the PSISA Code of Conduct (O. Reg. 363/07) and PIPEDA throughout every stage. The investigation follows a structured sequence:

1. Intake and scope confirmation. The retaining party provides the known information about the subject — name, last known address, associated vehicles, or business interests. The PI documents the legitimate purpose for the locate and confirms that the mandate falls within PSISA-licensed investigative services. The PIPEDA purpose-alignment requirement is assessed at this stage: the collection purpose must relate directly to the source from which information will be drawn.

2. Open-source enumeration. The investigator begins with the five publicly available information categories under SOR/2001-7. Court registries, business registries, PPSA registrations, and published directory data are cross-referenced. Each source type is recorded with the date of access and the specific registry or platform consulted.

3. Cross-reference and corroboration. Individual data points are cross-referenced across multiple sources to establish a current, corroborated address or contact. A single registry entry rarely completes a locate — the investigator builds a picture from converging sources, noting where records are consistent and flagging where they conflict.

4. Chain-of-custody documentation. Each information layer is documented with its source and date. This preserves the chain of custody required if the location report is tendered in later proceedings. The documentation also demonstrates PIPEDA compliance by recording the lawful basis for each collection.

5. Written location report. The final output is a written report — not a verbal disclosure. Verbal-only reports cannot be verified, cross-examined, or authenticated in proceedings. The written report identifies the sources consulted, the date each source was accessed, and the corroborating information that led to the located address or contact.

Is evidence from a skip trace admissible in Ontario court proceedings

Evidence gathered through a skip trace is subject to the same admissibility standards as other investigative evidence in Ontario civil proceedings.

Under ss. 31.1 and 31.2 of the Canada Evidence Act, R.S.C. 1985, c. C-5, electronically stored records are admissible when their integrity is authenticated. The investigator must establish that the digital records were what they purported to be and had not been altered. A written location report produced by a licensed PI — with documented sources, access dates, and timestamps — is structured to support satisfaction of this authentication requirement.

In judgment-enforcement proceedings, a licensed PI’s skip trace finding can establish the factual predicate for a creditor to proceed under Rule 60.18 of Ontario’s Rules of Civil Procedure, R.R.O. 1990, Reg. 194 — the examination in aid of execution. Under Rule 60.18(2), once a judgment creditor locates a judgment debtor, the creditor may examine the debtor on their income, property, debts, and means to satisfy the order. A licensed skip trace provides the address verification needed to serve that examination notice.

Counsel retaining a PI for a skip trace in a litigation context should receive a written location report — not a verbal summary — so that if the finding is challenged, the source chain can be reviewed and the PI’s methodology can be examined. This is a matter of litigation prudence, not merely practitioner preference.

What this means if you need to locate someone in Ontario

As licensed PSISA investigators operating across Ontario, we conduct skip trace investigations for lawyers, creditors, estate administrators, and families — producing written location reports with documented source chains that can be tendered in proceedings. Our practice covers skip tracing within the bounds set by the PSISA, PIPEDA, and the OPC’s publicly available information guidance.

The skip-tracing service cluster at Discreet Investigations also supports asset-locate matters — where a location report feeds into a wider judgment-enforcement strategy involving property and financial interests. For related context on how skip tracing intersects with hidden asset investigation in family proceedings, see our guide to hidden assets in an Ontario divorce.

To discuss a locate inquiry, call +1 (888) 680-0036 or visit our skip tracing service page.

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