A parent who learns that the other parent intends to leave Alberta with the children, or who has reason to fear that a child will be taken out of the province or the country, needs a court order before the move takes place. The Court of King’s Bench treats a risk of removal of a child from the jurisdiction as an urgent matter, and it can make an order that a child not be removed from Alberta, together with orders about the child’s passports and travel documents, on short notice or, where the risk justifies it, without notice to the other parent. Where a child has already been taken to another country that is a party to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, the Court has a dedicated process under its Family Practice Note 6.
For married parents, the Divorce Act sets the rules for relocation. A parent who intends to relocate with a child must give at least 60 days’ written notice to anyone with parenting time, decision-making responsibility or contact; a parent with parenting time or decision-making responsibility has 30 days to object; and if there is an objection the move cannot proceed without a court order. The Court decides relocation on the child’s best interests using additional factors specific to relocation, and the burden of proof depends on the existing arrangement: where the child spends substantially equal time with each parent, the relocating parent must prove the move is in the child’s best interests; where the child lives the vast majority of the time with the relocating parent, the objecting parent must prove it is not. For unmarried parents, the Family Law Act governs; it contains no notice scheme, and the question comes before the Court as a parenting order application, decided on the child’s best interests, unless an existing order sets its own notice terms.
Keystone Legal brings urgent non-removal and relocation applications to the Calgary Courts Centre and responds to them for parents who wish to move. For the objecting parent, the work proceeds quickly and comprises the commencing document, the urgent request, an affidavit establishing the risk and the child’s ties to Calgary, and a draft order dealing specifically with the child’s passports and travel documents so that it can be acted on. On the relocating parent’s side, the firm prepares the notice the Divorce Act requires, or the parenting application the Family Law Act requires, and the evidence on each relocation factor. In either role, the firm seeks an order that protects the child’s relationships while the question of the move is decided by the Court on its merits.
The practice is virtual, so meetings take place by video, telephone and email, with in-person meetings available on request in Cochrane or in Calgary. Advice is available in English or in French. Contested matters proceed at the Calgary Courts Centre, where counsel appears in person, and advisory and uncontested work is available anywhere in Alberta. If a move is imminent, call (587) 328-3328 today.
