If you have parenting time or decision-making responsibility and you plan to move with your child, you owe written notice at least 60 days before the move. The other parent has 30 days to object. Miss either deadline and the case starts badly.
Our charges include applicable taxes. Disbursements are extra and billed at cost — itemized upfront, in writing, never hidden.
From $1,693.87 taxes included
Two statutes cover this and they are deliberately similar. If a divorce proceeding has been started, or your parenting arrangements are already under a <a href="https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/D-3.4/">Divorce Act</a> order, that Act's relocation provisions apply. Otherwise — including married spouses who have separated but never filed for divorce — Ontario's <a href="https://www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/90c12">Children's Law Reform Act</a> applies. Both require written notice, in a prescribed form, at least 60 days before the expected date of the proposed relocation.
The notice is not a courtesy email. It has to go to everyone who holds parenting time, decision-making responsibility or contact under a contact order, and it has to set out the expected date, the new address and contact information, and a concrete proposal for how parenting time or contact would work after the move. A proposal that ignores the distance is the first thing the other side will attack.
Not every move is a relocation. The threshold is whether the change of residence is likely to have a significant impact on the child's relationship with a person who has parenting time, decision-making responsibility or contact. A move across the city usually is not; a move to another province usually is. Even a non-qualifying move still requires written notice of the new address and the date.
A court can change or remove the notice requirement where notice itself would create a risk of family violence. That is a court order, obtained in advance, not a judgment you make on your own. If you are worried about disclosing an address, raise it before the 60-day clock would otherwise start, because moving first and explaining afterwards is treated very differently.
A person who receives a notice of relocation has 30 days from receiving it to object, either in the prescribed form or by starting a court proceeding. If nobody objects within that window and no order prohibits the move, the relocation is authorized and can go ahead on the stated date. Thirty days of silence is consent, so read the notice the day it arrives.
If there is an objection, a judge decides, and the burden shifts with the existing arrangement. Where the parents already share parenting time substantially equally, the relocating parent must show the move is in the child's best interests. Where the child spends the vast majority of their time with the relocating parent, the objecting parent must show it is not. In between, the burden is shared.
The court weighs the reasons for the move, the impact on the child, how much time each person spends with the child and their role, whether anyone has complied with existing orders and agreements, whether a proposed new arrangement is reasonable, and whether either parent has honoured their obligations. What the court will not do is ask whether you would move anyway without the child.
That last rule matters more than people expect. You do not have to answer the trap question, and a judge cannot decide the case on the basis that you would probably stay if the move were refused. Our article on the <a href="/articles/relocation-legal-test-burden-of-proof-ontario">legal test and burden of proof</a> works through how these factors get applied in practice.
Relocating without notice invites an urgent motion, and the relief sought is usually an order returning the child pending a full hearing. Even where the move itself was reasonable, you are now defending your conduct rather than presenting your plan. Judges see the same parents repeatedly over years, and a unilateral move is remembered when the next issue comes up.
It also colours the merits. Courts consider whether a parent has respected the other's role and followed required processes when assessing what arrangement genuinely serves the child. A parent who ignored a notice obligation, or who took a job offer as licence to leave, starts the argument about decision-making responsibility from a materially weaker position. Our article on <a href="/articles/consequences-relocating-without-notice-ontario">relocating without notice</a> covers what actually happens.
The better sequence is boring: decide, then paper it, then move. Where the reason is a job or a new partner, expect to be asked for particulars — the offer, the salary, the housing, the schools, the extended family on the ground. Where the move is international, add immigration status, travel consent, and enforceability of any Ontario order at the destination.
Treadstone acts for parents on both sides of these files, on published flat fees for the steps that can be priced and a written estimate for contested motions. Our uncontested divorce is $1,693.87, taxes included; see the <a href="/pricing">pricing page</a> for the family list, and our guides on <a href="/articles/notice-requirements-before-relocating-with-child-ontario">notice requirements</a> and <a href="/articles/objecting-to-a-relocation-ontario-family-law">objecting to a relocation</a> for the detail.
At least 60 days before the expected date of the proposed relocation, in writing and in the prescribed form, to everyone with parenting time, decision-making responsibility or contact. The notice must include the date, the new address and contact information, and a proposal for how parenting time or contact would work afterwards.
If no objection is filed within 30 days of the notice being received, and no court order prohibits the move, the relocation is authorized and you can move on the date stated in the notice. That is why an objecting parent cannot afford to wait: the window closes quickly and silence operates as agreement.
Usually not. The test is whether the change of residence is likely to have a significant impact on the child's relationship with someone who has parenting time, decision-making responsibility or contact. A short move that leaves the schedule workable generally falls outside it, but written notice of the new address and date is still required.
It depends on the existing schedule. Where parenting time is substantially shared, the relocating parent must prove the move is in the child's best interests. Where the child is with the relocating parent the vast majority of the time, the objecting parent must prove it is not. Anywhere in between, both parents share the burden.
Not if a valid objection has been filed or an order prohibits it. Moving in the face of an objection invites an urgent motion to return the child and damages your position on the merits. If timing is genuinely tight — a job start date, a lease — that is an argument for moving quickly in court, not for moving quietly.
Open your file tonight — a licensed Ontario lawyer will confirm everything with you by tomorrow.