Madam Speaker, let me first express my gratitude to the hon. member for Mission-Coquitlam for her consideration in furnishing advance notice of the question.
I acknowledge the importance of the subject matter. Sadly, given the incidence of dysfunctional families in this country today it is often the grandparents who are the principal source of stable and continuous guidance and care for children. That must be recognized.
Last year the Department of Justice initiated a broad process of consultation concerning the custody and access provisions in the Divorce Act. That process ended on December 31 by which time we had received hundreds of submissions. Among them were submissions that went directly to the point raised by the hon. member. We are now in the process of examining those submissions.
There will be a federal-provincial-territorial meeting with attorneys general and ministers of justice from the provinces toward the end of March. This subject is on the agenda. We will give it consideration. I am certainly open to the suggestion. I will keep the hon. member abreast of the developments in respect of the issues she has raised.