A winning lottery ticket holder has stepped forward to claim C$40m (£21.4m) in prize money just hours before the ticket was set to expire, according to the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation.

Tony Bitonti, OLG's director of media relations, told the BBC the ticket was validated through a lottery terminal. It had been set to expire at midnight on Wednesday.

The lottery corporation had been searching for the owner of the Lotto Max jackpot ticket. Almost a year had passed since the buyer purchased it on 28 October 2025 at a retailer in Grey County, Ontario.

OLG did not identify the winner by name and said it had contacted them to confirm they were the rightful owner.

"If the rightful ownership is determined, then OLG will hold a winner celebration and share their story with the media and the public as part of our winner disclosure process," the company said in a statement.

OLG had said Grey County - which includes the Blue Mountains and Owen Sound - is a popular tourist destination, which means someone may have bought the ticket and forgot to check it after coming home.

Bitonti told CTV News earlier on Wednesday that the "sad part" was that the ticket had not been checked on the OLG app or at the store.

OLG said the winning numbers for the jackpot are 06, 14, 17, 19, 26, 43, 45, with Bonus Number 27.

The lottery group had urged players to check places like clothing pockets, handbags, backpacks, wallets and vehicle glove compartments to try to find the ticket.

If it had expired, the lottery would have kept the $40m prize for future games.

Large lottery prizes have gone unclaimed in the past.

On 28 June 2022, someone in Scarborough, Ontario, won a $70m Lotto Max draw, but no ticket holder ever came forward. OLG said at the time that 2,700 people called and emailed about the ticket - but not one of them was the winner.

About one per cent of prizes each year are not claimed, Bitonti said, adding they are usually much smaller wins.

Last week, an Alberta resident won Canada's largest-ever lottery jackpot for $90m. The winner has yet to be publicly identified.