Can I Cash An Ontario Government Cheque At Any Bank?

"Cheques issued by provincial governments are treated as regular cheques and may be considered stale after six months"
https://www.payments.ca/resources/payme ... ng-cheques

There are no rules, AFAIK, on free cashing of provincial government cheques unlike the federal counterpart.

The Government of Canada is its own financial institution and all banks must honour their payment instruments, it doesn't appear that this extends to provincial governments.

Is there a particular reason why you currently don't have a bank account? There are many free options available including popular options like Tangerine & Simplii. If you require branch access, there are credit unions like DUCA Credit Union in GTA and FIrstOntario in the Hamilton/Niagara Region that offers free account options.

Yes you will be able to cash a Government of Ontario cheque at a bank, but you may need to be a customer with that bank, but you do not need to have a checking account, It can be a mortgage, line of Credit, credit card, etc.
For government of Canada Checks, you can cash them anywhere that offers check cashing even if you are not a customer of that institution.

You can cash them at any Canadian financial institutions of which you are a customer of. However, unlike federal government cheques, they aren’t mandated to cash them for free.

However, if it’s under $1500, take it to a RBC branch. I read in their fee schedule that they’ll waive the $5 fee for non-clients to negotiate municipal and provincial cheques under $1500: https://www.rbcroyalbank.com/banking-se ... vices.html

Hope that solves your problem OP!

I assume banks have to cash federal government cheques is because they are federal regulated? How about credit union? Do they have to cash provincial government cheque?