Bill 211 - DOCUMENTATION OF CHILD ACCESS EXCHANGE ACT

Mrs. Alana DELONG, MLA for Calgary - Bow has proposed this Personal Members Bill 211 THE DOCUMENTATION OF CHILD ACCESS EXCHANGE ACT.  

The bill received 2nd Reading in the Alberta Legislature on Monday Dec 1, 2008 at 1730h.

Here is the video link for House Proceedings on Dec 1, 2008 (this requires Windows Media Player to be enabled in your browser).  The specific debate on PMB 211 begins at the 3h25m15s mark.   And here is link to Hansard hard copy (go to p 29/36 which is p2155).

Because the House is about to recess for Xmas, the bill will die on the order paper but Justice Minister Alison REDFORD informed the house she intends to adopt it as a Government Bill in the Spring session.

This bill is intended to formalize a protocol that allows divorced or separated parents (or legal guardians) to document an exchange of children as per instructions in parenting orders.   Currently, when one or both parents do not cooperate on respecting such exchanges a child is denied the opportunity to spend designated time with a parent.  This act will establish a responsible person and procedure to document that such exchanges have taken place and will be admissible as evidence in Court. 

Bill 211 will also expand the number of exchange locations and recorders to include, Day Care Centers, Schools, Doctors or Child Psychologists and even Churches.   These are distinctly different from those special situations where families are dealing with domestic violence.  Six specially designated exchange centers have already been established in major towns accross the province to manage such supervised visits and designated high conflict exchanges.  Otherwise, many families meet at RCMP stations.   Obviously, these high-conflict locations are unsuitable for the vast majority of divorced or seperated families.

I suggest this legislation will be useful to PAS impacted families.  Click here to find your own MLA contact info or link here to search.