Child Custody and Parenting Arrangements in Calgary
Calgary family lawyer for parenting time, decision-making, child custody and access after separation
KEEPING YOU CONNECTED TO YOUR CHILDREN
Advantage Family Law understands the fears parents carry through a child custody dispute. Will you still see your children every day? Will you still have a say in their school, their sports, their future? We work with business owners and professionals to stabilize the parenting situation and to make sure your role as a parent does not end with the relationship.
KNOW WHERE YOU STAND BEFORE YOU AGREE TO ANYTHING
How We Can Help with Your Parenting Arrangement
The end of a relationship is hardest where your children are concerned. When emotions are running high, it’s easy to accept whatever parenting arrangement brings closure fastest, even if it costs you time with your children or costs them financially for years. Before anything is finalized, we get clear on the facts: how your children’s lives are structured, what each parent contributes, and what your family’s finances actually look like, including income that flows through a business or corporation rather than a salary.
When parents come to us asking about child custody, what they are really asking for is time with their children and a say in their lives. Your parenting agreement, and any court order, will use two terms for exactly that: parenting time, which covers when your children are with you, and decision-making responsibility, which covers who decides on their education, health care, religion, and activities. Every arrangement is measured against one standard: the best interests of your children.
No two parenting disputes look the same, and Christopher Bungay, our senior lawyer, personally reviews every case to build the right strategy for yours.
Negotiating Your Parenting Agreement
We negotiate agreements that clearly allocate parenting time and decision-making between you and your former partner, with rules for healthy, respectful communication built in, so your children’s routine is stable and the conflict stays out of their lives.
Helping You Restore Parenting Time
If your former partner is withholding the children or dictating the schedule on their own, we act to restore your parenting time. The longer an imposed arrangement runs unchallenged, the harder it is to unwind, so we move before it hardens into routine.
Acting When Your Children Are at Risk
If the other parent is unsafe, unreliable, or acting inappropriately, equal parenting may not serve your children’s best interests. We move quickly to seek parenting arrangements that protect your children’s well-being while ensuring you have the parenting time and decision-making authority.
CHILD CUSTODY AND PARENTING RIGHTS
How Parenting Arrangements Work in Alberta
Every parenting arrangement in Alberta, whether negotiated between parents or ordered by a court, resolves the same three questions. When are your children with each parent? Who makes the major decisions in their lives? And how does the arrangement become binding? Courts begin from the position that children benefit from a meaningful relationship with both parents, and neither parent can unilaterally decide what the arrangement will be. These rights apply whether you were married or common-law. Your role as a parent does not depend on a marriage certificate.
Parenting Time
Parenting time determines when your children are in your care and how time is shared between parents. This includes the regular weekly schedule, holidays, vacations, birthdays, and how arrangements may adapt as your children grow and their needs change.
Decision-Making Responsibility
Decision-making responsibility determines who has the authority to make important decisions about your children’s lives, including education, medical care, and extracurricular activities, which can be shared jointly, divided between parents, or assigned to one parent.
The Agreement or Court Order
Parenting arrangements can be formalized through a written agreement or determined by a court order. Setting out clear terms helps prevent future disputes about what was agreed while still allowing adjustments when your children’s needs or circumstances change.
WHAT'S AT STAKE WITHOUT AN AGREEMENT
Without a clear agreement, parenting conflict escalates. Informal arrangements collapse, one parent begins dictating terms, and your children absorb the tension through hostile text chains and handoffs. If the dispute reaches a courtroom, a judge who has never met your family imposes a schedule on your children’s lives. This is exactly where we help clients act early, settle the arrangement on fair terms, and keep those decisions with the two people who know the children best.
CO-PARENTING WITH COMPLEX FINANCES
Why Custody Conflicts Escalate in High-Income Families
Even when both parents want what’s best for their children, high-income families face complications that standard parenting arrangements miss. Common complications include:
- A former partner arguing that running a business or a demanding practice makes you unavailable to parent, and using it to claim more parenting time
- Travel, on-call schedules, or irregular hours that require a parenting schedule built around real availability rather than a template
- One parent controlling the family's wealth, creating pressure to accept an unfair parenting arrangement
- Your company's finances being pulled into the parenting dispute as leverage
- Disagreements over private school, competitive sports, and the programs that shape your children's future
- Proposed relocations for work that put the entire schedule in question
- Public court proceedings that expose family and financial details parents would rather keep private
Parenting disputes in high-income families rarely stay separate from money, and Christopher has spent his career working at the intersection of the two. As a father, a business owner, and a qualified family mediator, he keeps the focus on your children while protecting your position, and he settles disputes outside a public courtroom wherever possible.
KEEPING YOU CONNECTED TO YOUR CHILDREN
Parenting Time and Decision-Making Under Alberta Law
Your Right to Remain a Parent
As a parent in Alberta, you have the right to continue playing a full role in your children’s lives after separation. One parent cannot unilaterally decide what the parenting arrangement will be, withhold the children, or cut the other parent out without legal justification. There is no automatic entitlement to a 50/50 schedule, but courts recognize that children generally benefit from meaningful time with both parents. Where both parents are capable and available, an equal or near-equal arrangement is a realistic outcome. Running a business or carrying a demanding career does not disqualify you from a full parenting role. The answer to a busy schedule is a parenting arrangement designed around it, not a reduced place in your children’s lives.
What matters is the best interests of your children: their safety, stability, relationships with each parent, and each parent’s ability to meet their needs. A well-negotiated agreement addresses these factors directly, before positions harden and before the conflict reaches your children.
When Equal Parenting Is Not Appropriate
Where a parent’s conduct puts children at risk, the law responds. Courts can order supervised parenting time, restrict or reallocate decision-making, or limit contact entirely. If you have genuine concerns about your children’s safety with the other parent, the correct response is a legal one. Informal restrictions imposed on your own can later be used against you, while fast, well-documented legal action protects both your children and your position.
WHEN ONE PARENT WANTS TO MOVE
Relocation and Your Parenting Arrangement
A new job, a new relationship, or a fresh start in another city can put your entire parenting arrangement in question. One parent cannot simply move away with the children. A parent proposing to relocate generally must give the other parent formal notice, and the parent staying behind has a limited window to object. For business owners and professionals whose careers span provinces, relocation disputes are among the most common and most consequential parenting conflicts we see.
What Courts Weigh in a Relocation Dispute
If the parents cannot agree, the decision turns on the best interests of the children, and courts look closely at:
- The reasons for the move
- The children's ties to school, community, and family
- Each parent's involvement in the children's lives
- The impact on the children's relationship with the parent staying behind
- Whether the parenting arrangement can survive the distance
Note: If your former partner gives notice that they intend to move with your children, you have a limited period to respond, and a failure to respond can be treated as acceptance of the move.
Child Access and Co-Parenting in Alberta
Frequently Asked Questions
Is child custody still a legal term in Alberta?
No. Canadian family law replaced custody and access with parenting time and decision-making responsibility, shifting the focus from parental ownership to parental responsibility. Many people still search for a custody lawyer, and the underlying legal work is the same: protecting your role in your children’s lives.
Do parents automatically get 50/50 parenting time in Alberta?
No. There is no automatic entitlement to equal parenting time. Every arrangement is decided on the best interests of the children. Courts recognize that children generally benefit from meaningful time with both parents, and equal or near-equal schedules are common outcomes, but they follow from the family’s circumstances rather than a legal presumption.
Do I have parenting rights if we were never married?
Yes. Parenting time and decision-making responsibility work the same way for unmarried parents in Alberta as they do for married parents. Your rights and obligations as a parent do not depend on your relationship status.
Can my former partner stop me from seeing my children?
Not without legal justification. One parent cannot unilaterally withhold the children or dictate the parenting arrangement. If this is happening to you, legal steps can restore your parenting time. The longer an imposed arrangement continues unchallenged, the harder it can be to unwind, so acting early matters.
What if I'm worried about my children's safety with the other parent?
Raise it with your lawyer immediately. Where a parent’s conduct puts children at risk, courts can order supervised parenting time, restrict decision-making, or limit contact. These situations call for evidence and fast, careful legal action rather than informal restrictions that can later be used against you.
Can my former partner move away with our children?
A parent who wants to relocate with the children generally must give the other parent formal notice, and the other parent has a limited window to object. If the dispute reaches a court, the decision turns on the best interests of the children, including their ties to each parent, their school, and their community. If you receive a relocation notice, act immediately, because the deadlines are short.
Will owning a business count against me in a parenting dispute?
No. Running a business or carrying a demanding career does not make you a lesser parent in the eyes of the law, though a former partner may argue your schedule leaves you unavailable. The response is a parenting arrangement built around your real availability, with terms that protect your time with your children and keep your company’s finances out of the conflict wherever possible.
Your Senior Lawyer
Christopher Bungay
What sets Christopher apart in parenting disputes is that he’s a parent himself. A husband and father, he understands that no settlement matters more than your relationship with your children, and his background building and managing companies means the financial pressure tactics that surface in these disputes don’t catch his clients off guard. He handles every file with discretion, works to keep conflict low, and has the courtroom experience to litigate when necessary.