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On November 14, 2011, BC's Attorney General introduced Bill 16, a bill that proposes to fundamentally change family law in BC. This bill will replace the existing Family Relations Act that was first passed in 1978. We here at Courthouse Libraries BC want to do everything we can to help you be informed about these upcoming changes. To this end, we created this page to answer some common questions.
One of our guest bloggers, JP Boyd, has posted to our Stream blog on the sweeping changes introduced.
If you are interested in reading about these in greater detail, JP Boyd has posted a more extensive review on his blog or you may wish to read the Attorney General's webpage dedicated to these changes.
Short answer: we don’t know yet.
Bill 16 received Royal Assent on November 24, 2011. The Bill has commencement provisions by section that can be found in section 482. You will see from this section that the legislature intends for most of the sections to come into force by regulation of the Lieutenant Governor in Council. There are a few notable exceptions.
The following sections are now in effect: • section 258, which repeals sections 90 [obligation to support parent] and 120.1 [property agreements] of the Family Relations Act; and • all sections of the consequential amendments that change spousal terminology to replace legally outdated terms with gender-neutral terms, e.g., “husband”, “wife” replaced with “spouse”.
For a summary of the provisions that are now in force, please see JP Boyd's blog on Family Law Act Receives Royal Assent and blog on the Early and Unlamented Deaths of ss. 90 and 120.1.
We understand that it will likely be between 12-18 months before the majority of the other provisions are proclaimed into force in order to allow the profession and service providers to catch up to the changes.
You can check the status of proceedings using the table on this Progress of Bills page (just scroll to Bill 16).
If you want a closer look, you can look at the BC legislature's Votes and Proceedings page for day-by-day breakdowns of legislative activity.
We can! You can subscribe to our Family Law RSS feed and receive Family Law news by email or in your RSS reader.
If the new Act is adopted, what about the transition between the old Act and the new one?
The Act contains transitional provisions in Part 13 that deal with matters already before the courts such as existing restraining orders and payment of pension.
We do! You can read them online or at many of our courthouse libraries:
Justice Review Task Force, Family Justice Reform Working Group, 2005 report, A New Justice System for Children and Families. (Available in the Vancouver courthouse library)
Ministry of Attorney General, Justice Services Branch, Civil and Family Law Policy Office, 2006, Chapter 1 ~ Background and Context for the Family Relations Act Review.
Ministry of Attorney General, Justice Services Branch, Civil and Family Law Policy Office, 2007, Discussion Papers, released in three phases.
Ministry of Attorney General, Justice Services Branch, Civil and Family Law Policy Office, 2009, Family Relations Act Review: Report of Public Consultations.
Want a refresher on the legislative process?
Check out How a Bill Becomes Law in BC
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