Cooperative Parenting Lawyers in Vancouver, BC

Guardianship, parental responsibilities, and parenting time under the Family Law Act

British Columbia’s Family Law Act builds parenting around three ideas, and they are not interchangeable. Guardianship is the status that carries authority over a child. Under section 39, parents who lived together are each guardians, and they remain guardians after they separate; a parent who never lived with the child is generally not a guardian unless an agreement or court order, or the specific circumstances in the Act, make them one. Only a guardian can hold the next two things.

Parental responsibilities, set out in section 41, are the decisions that come with raising a child: where the child lives, day-to-day care, education and school choices, health care, religious and cultural upbringing, extracurricular activities, and the authority to receive information about the child from schools, doctors, and others. Guardians can share these responsibilities or divide specific ones between them, and a workable parenting plan usually spells out who decides what rather than leaving “joint” as a vague label. Parenting time, under section 42, is the time a child is with a particular guardian, and during that time the day-to-day decisions fall to whoever has the child. Splitting parenting time unequally is common and carries no stigma; there is no legal presumption that time must be shared 50/50.

The best-interests standard and family violence

Section 37 makes the best interests of the child the only test for any parenting decision, and section 37(2) lists what that means in practice: the child’s health and emotional well-being, the history of who has cared for the child, the child’s relationships, each guardian’s ability to meet the child’s needs, and the effect of any family violence, among other factors. Section 37(3) directs that a guardian’s conduct only matters where it bears on that person’s ability to parent. Where family violence is alleged, section 38 sets out a separate checklist the court must work through, looking at the nature and frequency of the violence and its effect on the child and on the parties’ ability to co-operate. These provisions are why a parenting dispute turns on evidence about the child, not on which parent feels more wronged.

Parenting coordinators, out-of-court resolution, and enforcing the schedule

When two guardians agree on the big picture but keep colliding over the details, a parenting coordinator can help. Sections 14 and 15 of the Act let parents appoint one by agreement or court order. A coordinator helps implement an existing agreement or order and can make binding determinations to settle day-to-day disputes, but the role has limits: a coordinator cannot change guardianship, make major changes to the parenting arrangement, or decide a relocation. Those stay with the court.

The Act pushes families toward resolving disputes out of court in the first place. Family dispute resolution, defined broadly to include mediation, arbitration, parenting coordination, and collaborative processes, is meant to be considered before litigation, and family law professionals have a duty to screen for family violence and to advise on these options. When an agreement or order is in place and one parent still withholds the child, section 61 gives the court real enforcement tools: make-up parenting time, required counselling, reimbursement of expenses, and a fine of up to $5,000. Section 62 recognizes that some denials are not wrongful, for example where a guardian reasonably believed the child would be harmed. Knowing which tool fits which problem is often the difference between a schedule that holds and one that unravels.