Improving Alberta’s Dower Act

February 15, 2022

Family Maintenance and Support from the Estate of a Person that Stood in the Place of a Parent, Report for Discussion 34

November 3, 2020

Property Division: Common Law Couples and Adult Interdependent Partners, Final Report 112

The Alberta Law Reform Institute recommends changes to the law for how common-law couples divide property if their relationship breaks down. This Report also recommends changes to the law for married couples who lived together before marriage and for adult interdependent partners who are not common law couples. Why is Law Reform Needed? 2016 Census data indicates that 320,260 Albertans consider themselves to be in common-law relationships. If common-law couples break up and cannot agree how […]

June 4, 2018

2017 Alberta Cohabitation Survey Results

In conjunction with its project on property division for common law couples and adult interdependent partners, ALRI partnered with the Population Research Lab at the University of Alberta to carry out a survey of Albertans’ attitudes and expectations towards cohabitation and property division. The survey resulted in 1,200 responses and helped guide the recommendations in Report for Discussion 30 – Property Division for Common Law Couples and Adult Interdependent Partners. Donna Fong, Rosanna Shih, and Dr. […]

September 8, 2017

Matrimonial Property Act: Valuation Date, Report for Discussion 25

The Matrimonial Property Act was enacted in 1978 and provides a method of sharing matrimonial property between spouses on marriage breakdown. What property is available for sharing and how is it valued? Since 2005, the law applied by the courts is that the property must be valued at trial. In reviewing Alberta cases since 2009, this date is problematic. It is an uncertain future date, assumes spouses will litigate to trial, and discourages earlier party driven settlements. […]

November 2, 2014

Recognition of Rights and Obligations in Same Sex Relationships, Research Paper 21

In 1999, in M. v. H. (1999), 171 DLR (4th) 577 (SCC), the Supreme Court of Canada determined that any legislation which provided access to court-enforced spousal support rights to opposite-sex unmarried couples, while denying that access to equivalent same-sex couples, was unconstitutional (in that it violated s 15(1) of the Charter and was not saved by s 1) This paper surveys Alberta legislation current to the time of publication, and determines there are several points on inconsistency between […]

January 3, 2002

Reform of the Intestate Succession Act, Final Report 78

The current scheme for intestate succession is patterned after legislation created in 1670. The report aims to reform the Intestate Succession Act in a manner more in line with the modern presumed intention of intestates, which has been gleaned through an examination of various studies. This report recommends that if an intestate died leaving a surviving spouse and issue, and all of the issue were of the surviving spouse, the entire estate should go to the surviving […]

June 29, 1999

Family Law v. 18.4–Child Guardianship, Custody and Access, Report for Discussion 18.4

As addressed in the other reports in this series, Alberta law relating to the care of children (at the time of this report’s publication) included a variety of statutory provisions that were out-dated, inconsistent, and/or had uncertain scope. For this reason, this report begins from a “clean slate” in trying to define (i) child guardianship, (ii) custody, and (iii) access, and to determine how these issues can be decided in order to protect the best […]

October 2, 1998

Family Law v. 18.3–Child Support, Report for Discussion 18.3

This report was written to address five concerns about child support law at the time of its publication, viz.: the inadequacy of child support awarded; inconsistency of award between similar families; inefficiency in assessment; inequality based on “legitimacy” of birth; and unaddressed complexities based on the inter-relation between spousal support, custody of children, and child support. This report expounds recommendations for a new approach to child support, which is meant to foster equality for all […]

Family Law v. 18.1–Overview, Report for Discussion 18.1

This report presents the criticisms of Family Law (as it stood at the time of publication) that led to the initiation of the Family Law project by the ALRI. Chief among these criticisms: much of Alberta family law is outdated; family Law is split up among several different pieces of legislation; different parts of Alberta family law are not consistent with each other; family law is controlled by numerous different bodies, with no central authority. […]