Parental Responsibilities and Parenting Time Under BC's Family Law Act

After separation, parents often argue about two things at once: who decides, and who has the child when. British Columbia's Family Law Act treats these as separate questions, which can make arrangements more flexible than people expect.

This article explains parental responsibilities and parenting time, how guardians can share or divide them, and how an arrangement can be recorded or changed. It is general information, not advice.

This article covers the law of British Columbia.

Parental responsibilities: the decision-making side

Only a guardian may have parental responsibilities. They include day-to-day decisions and care, where the child lives, with whom the child lives and associates, education and activities, cultural and religious upbringing, health-care consent (subject to section 17 of the Infants Act), applying for passports and benefits, receiving notices and information, and starting or defending legal proceedings for the child.

While the child's parents live together and after they separate, each parent is a guardian, so separation alone does not end guardianship. An agreement or order made after separation, or when the parents are about to separate, can provide that a parent is not a guardian.

A parent who has never lived with the child is not a guardian unless an exception applies: the parent is a parent under the section 30 arrangements, all guardians agree in writing that the parent is a guardian, or the parent regularly cares for the child.

Parenting time: the schedule side

Parenting time is the time a child is with a guardian, as allocated under an agreement or order. During it, the guardian may make day-to-day decisions and have day-to-day care, control and supervision, unless the agreement or order says otherwise.

Contact is different. It is time with a person who is not a guardian, while parenting time is time with a guardian. A non-guardian, such as a grandparent, may be granted contact by a court order under section 59, and the court decides on the child's best interests.

How they can be shared or divided

Unless an agreement or order says otherwise, each guardian may exercise all parental responsibilities after consulting the other guardians, unless consultation would be unreasonable or inappropriate. Responsibilities can also be allocated to certain guardians only, exercised separately or together.

Guardians can share all parental responsibilities or divide them up. No arrangement is presumed best: the Act does not presume equal parenting time, equal responsibilities, or joint or separate decision-making. Everything is decided on the child's best interests.

What the child's best interests involve

In making an agreement or order about guardianship, parenting arrangements or contact, the parties and the court must consider the best interests of the child only. The factors listed in the Act include:

• The child's health and emotional well-being.
• The child's views, unless it would be inappropriate to consider them.
• The nature and strength of the child's relationships with significant people, and the history of the child's care.
• The child's need for stability.
• The impact of any family violence on the child's safety, security or well-being.

The Act sets no age at which a child chooses; the child's views are one factor, weighed with the others. An agreement or order is not in the child's best interests unless it protects, to the greatest extent possible, the child's physical, psychological and emotional safety, security and well-being.

Family violence under the Act includes physical abuse, sexual abuse, psychological or emotional abuse, and a child's direct or indirect exposure to family violence.

Agreements, orders and changes

Guardians may make an agreement covering the allocation of responsibilities, parenting time, how it is carried out and how disputes are resolved. The agreement is binding only if made after separation, or when the parties are about to separate and it is meant to take effect on separation. When someone applies, the court must set aside or replace all or part of an agreement that is not in the child's best interests.

A guardian can apply to court for orders on these matters, but not if the guardians are the child's parents and are not separated. The court may require supervision of parenting time or transfers. An order can be changed, suspended or terminated if the child's needs or circumstances have changed.

A person entitled to parenting time or contact under an agreement or order may apply to court within 12 months after it was wrongfully denied. Denial is not wrongful in some situations, for example if the guardian reasonably believed the child might suffer family violence.

• Provincial Court: Form 3 Application about a family law matter.
• Supreme Court: Form F3 Notice of Family Claim.
• Provincial Court applicants must complete a Parenting After Separation course unless exempt.

What to do next

Think separately about decisions and schedule. Where informal arrangements are settled, a guardian must not change them without consulting the other guardians unless consultation is unreasonable or inappropriate.

• List the decisions that matter (school, health, travel) and who should make each.
• Sketch a realistic schedule that fits the child's routine and stability.
• Put the arrangement in writing and ask a lawyer about filing it.
• Check whether you need a Parenting After Separation certificate before applying.

Frequently asked questions