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Manitoba government press release ...

Grand Relations Strategy To Support Positive Family Relation With Grandparents, Extended Family

Enhanced Services Strengthen Alternatives to Court: Mackintosh - November 27, 2006

Grandparents and extended family members will have better options and more help to resolve access and guardianship disputes, Family Services and Housing Minister Gord Mackintosh announced today.

“Grandparents, parents and others have told us that we must provide better ways to solve disputes without the financial and emotional burden of contested court hearings and we are responding,” said Mackintosh.

“These initiatives recognize that a child can benefit from a healthy relationship with a grandparent,” said Healthy Living Minister Kerri Irvin-Ross. “We need to support loving relationships between children and their extended families including elders.”

The reforms continue to ensure the child’s best interests remain the overriding consideration in resolving family access disputes while ensuring children’s parents - who have primary responsibility for their well-being - have a voice in proceedings that affect their children, said Mackintosh.

Called Grand Relations, the five-point plan includes:

• Providing a grandparent advisor immediately to help families find the best solutions and services when grandchild access and guardianship is in dispute. The grandparent advisor is available toll-free at 1-800-282-8069, ext. 7236.
• Providing new leading-edge alternatives to court:
  • Piloting First Choice, a new dispute resolution service, as of April 1, 2007, to resolve custody and access-related disputes without a contested court hearing. A Canadian first, this initiative combines mediation and evaluation by using the early attention of a professional two-person team that advises on the likely outcome of a family assessment report in addition to mediating a settlement of outstanding issues.
  • Mandating For the Sake of the Children, the education program for parties to a family dispute where the care of and access to children is in dispute, and enhancing the component of the program relating to the importance of positive grandparent and extended family relations.
  • Developing an Aboriginal model of dispute resolution such as healing circles for out-of-court settlements.
• Proposing legislative changes in the Grandparent Access and Other Amendments Act to:
  • strengthen the recognition in law of grandparents by requiring courts to consider that “a child can benefit from a positive, nurturing relationship with a grandparent” when making an order regarding grandparent access to a grandchild;
  • better facilitate grandparent and other family access by providing, not just an all-or-nothing approach, but also creative solutions for courts, lawyers and families such as certain times for visits, attending activities, sharing gifts and communication, sharing photos and other information;
  • allow courts to adjust orders as a relationship evolves; and
  • allow orders to be made more quickly where appropriate.
• Creating a provincewide education campaign about options to resolve family access disputes that recognizes that children can have many important family relationships.
• Creating a grandparent fostering outreach program, particularly in Aboriginal communities, to alert grandparents to the benefits of becoming foster parents with compensation and supports.

“Grand Relations will help maintain children’s positive relationships with grandparents and others. It builds on Manitoba’s strong government and court initiatives that resolve most family conflicts without an adversarial hearing in court,” said Andrew Swan, MLA, Minto, who led consultations and the development of the reform package.

The province will invest up to $600,000 on a full-year basis including the addition of seven new staff for Grand Relations.

More information is available at http://www.gov.mb.ca/fs/childfam/grandparents_access.html.

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BACKGROUND INFORMATION (Word Doc)