Okay.
I'll be quick on relocation. The person who's relocating has thought about the relocation for ages. This says they have to give 60 days' notice and the responding party has 30 days. It's entirely unfair, because in rural Canada or northern Canada, they can't even get a lawyer in 30 days. It can't happen. It's not going to happen. Even in urban centres, it's not going to happen. You can't give them 30 days.
My suggestion to you is to make the notice period five months and have another process with 90 or 60 days for a response. Give them a chance to consider what we're supposed to consider as an alternative, sort of an ADR method. Even in relocation, there should be a family dispute resolution process. If you tell somebody to just run to court within 30 days, they're already at the ramparts and they're ready for battle. That's the opposite of the philosophy of the legislation. You should give further time, in my submission.
Also, this notion that someone can just allegedly send a letter with what they have to send isn't sufficient, in my submission. Why? People will do mischief. They'll say they sent notice and they didn't send notice. Then what happens? Not only that, but you have an order in place that gives the non-moving party time with the child. They have a valid order doing that. The other person leaves just with notice that may or may not have been given, and you have chaos. Can you enforce the order? Can you not enforce the order? Is the person who left in contempt or not? What about if the child needs a psychologist in their new location? The psychologist, if they're good, says, “Where's the consent of the other party and let me see your court order?” Some private schools and other schools do that too. They can't show an order.
The better system, I would suggest to you, is to make the relocating party have a standard pro forma form of notice. Let them prove in court, in an easy way, that “I've sent it and here's my proposal for relocation”, all the things that are in the bill, and let there be a check box at the bottom where the responding party can say, “Yes, I agree to the move” or “No, I don't agree.” If there's no response, that person can simply file it and get a desk order. Then we don't have the administration of justice brought into chaos by having a legislative scheme allowing a move and an order disallowing a move. Yes, it'll cost a couple of bucks, but it's relatively inexpensive compared to everything else.
In the onus section of my submission, I attached a paper we did. My preference is to have the Manitoba model, if you'd look at it. I don't think that's something that the government's prepared to do, and I'll explain why in a moment. Second would be what they did in Nova Scotia. The idea of having terms like substantially equal time or vast majority of their time, which are undefined terms, is a big problem because, again, children need predictability among other things. This will lead lawyers to have arguments.
I'll make one final point on that, if I may, which is just about the double-bind question. The way it's drafted is nice but, I say with respect, incorrect, because all it says is that the court can't consider whether the person who intends to relocate would relocate without the child. When I'm the lawyer, I'm going to ask a different question: Will you stay? It doesn't say I can't ask that question.
What about sauce for the goose and sauce for the gander? This doesn't say I can't ask the non-relocating parent whether they are prepared to move. That's a problem. It should be the same. There's a good philosophical argument to say don't allow the double-bind question. I'm in the minority. I think you should allow the double-bind question. I think we should have confidence in judges. They weigh all sorts of things. They ignore things. They weigh things. This isn't going to put them over the edge. Let them consider it. Let them consider the full picture, but I'm, you should know, in the minority. My colleagues who practice in this area generally don't share that view. I think it's important.
If you are going to ban it though, be consistent. Ban it for both and be clear that it's not only to relocate with the child; it's stay or go for both. There's an amendment.
Do I have much time left?