Difference between revisions of "Parents"

The provincial ''[[Family Law Act]]'' applies to couples who are or were in long-term cohabiting relationships and to couples who weren't in long relationships but have had a child together. Almost all of the orders the ''Act'' talks about aren't available to couples who aren't married and who don't qualify as unmarried spouses. As a result, parents who didn't live together aren't entitled to ask for spousal support and are excluded from the parts of the ''Act'' that talk about sharing family property and family debt. What they can ask for are orders about the care of their children and about child support.

The federal ''[[Divorce Act]]'' only applies to people who are or were married to each other. It doesn't apply to unmarried couples, including couples who qualify as unmarried spouses.

In a short relationship, each person will generally be entitled to keep whatever they brought into the relationship and anything they received as a gift from the other person. If there are any jointly owned assets ― property that both people own and that is registered in both names ― like a house or a car, there is a legal presumption that each owner is entitled to an equal interest in the asset, whether the couple contributed equally to its purchase or not.  

Although unmarried couples who lived together for less than two years, or didn't live together at all, aren't able to make any claims about property owned only by one of them under the ''[[Family Law Act]]'', they may be able to make a claim under certain common law principles. These are discussed in more detail in the first section of the ''[[Property_%26_Debt_in_Family_Law_Matters|Property & Debt]]'' chapter, under the heading [[Property_%26_Debt_in_Family_Law_Matters#Property_claims_and_people_who_aren.27t_spouses|Property claims and people who aren't spouses]].

Child support is payable by anyone who is the parent of a child, regardless of the nature or brevity of the relationship that produced the child. The ''Family Law Act'' says, at s. 147, that "each parent" has a duty to provide support for their child.

Under s. 150(1) of the ''Act'', child support is to be paid in the amount determined under the [[Child Support Guidelines]]. As a result, all of the provisions of the Guidelines apply to unmarried parents, including:

*the tables that are used to calculate the amount of child support payable,  

*the exceptions that allow child support to be paid in an amount different than the usual table amount, and

*the rules about the payment of children's special expenses.

You can find additional information about child support and the Guidelines in the chapter  [[Child Support]]. You can find additional information about paternity and paternity testing in the chapter ''[[Other Family Law Issues]]'', in the section [[Parentage and Assisted Reproduction]].

In other words, if a couple has had a child but never lived together, the parent who does not live with the child is not presumed to be a guardian of the child unless they "regularly care" for the child.  

A parent who isn't a guardian can become a guardian if the child's other guardians, who may be just the other parent, agree that the parent should be a guardian. If the parents can't agree on this, then the parent who isn't a guardian has three choices. They:

#must prove that they "regularly care" for the child, in  <span class="noglossary">order</span> to be recognized as a guardian of the child who is entitled to participate in parenting the child, or

Applications for appointment as guardian are difficult as the person who is making the application must provide a special kind of affidavit that talks about the children who are and have been in the person's care, any civil or criminal court proceedings that might impact on the safety of a child, and any history of involvement with the Ministry for Children and Family Development (MCFD). The person must also provide recent MCFD and police records checks. Applications for appointment as a guardian are discussed in more detail in the [[Guardianship,_Parenting_Arrangements_and_Contact|Guardianship, Parenting Arrangements and Contact]] section of the [[Children]] chapter, under the heading "[[Guardianship,_Parenting_Arrangements_and_Contact#Being_a_guardian_and_becoming_a_guardian|Being a guardian and becoming a guardian]]."