AI-assisted research summary: The Act says parents are generally joint decision-makers and joint guardians of a child’s property, subject to exceptions, agreements, or court orders.
The Children’s Law Act, 2020 The Children's Law Act, 2020 governs decision-making responsibility, parenting time and the guardianship of children. It also includes rules for determining child status, parentage and other related issues. As a general rule, the Act establishes the parents as joint legal decision-makers for the child, and as joint guardians of the child’s property with equal rights, powers and responsibilities. This is subject to exceptions mentioned in the Act or an agreement or court order to the contrary. The Act also sets out rules around parentage including situations of assisted reproduction, surrogacy, and where a family is composed of more than two parents. The regulations further specify the requirements for parentage and surrogacy agreements. Where a parenting dispute is before the court, the court primarily considers the best interests of the child, and does not prefer one parent over the other. A parenting order is considered to be in the best interests of a child if it protects the child’s physical, psychological and emotional safety, security and well-being to the greatest extent possible. The Act prescribes remedies for the enforcement of parenting orders where the court is satisfied that a person entitled to parenting time with respect to a child pursuant to an order or agreement has been wrongfully denied parenting time. The Act also provides for dispute resolution procedures that occur outside of court including: • Mediation; • Arbitration; and • The use of a parenting coordinator.