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Surrogacy Law in BC

What should a co-parenting agreement include?

Planning to raise a child with a friend, a partner, or someone you met through a co-parenting platform? That is a deliberate, thoughtful choice. It is also one that works a lot better with a written agreement than without one.

A co-parenting agreement sets out roles, responsibilities, and parenting arrangements before your child arrives. It does not guarantee that every hard moment will be easy. What it does is give both of you something to come back to when things get complicated, because at some point, they will.

This article explains what a co-parenting agreement should cover, how BC law applies to co-parenting arrangements, and what happens if you skip this step.

Ask Journey

Are you co-parenting with someone you know well, or is this a newer arrangement, perhaps someone you connected with through a platform? Tell Journey a little about your situation and we can help you figure out what your agreement needs to address.

What a co-parenting agreement actually is

A co-parenting agreement is a written contract between two or more people who intend to raise a child together, without necessarily being in a romantic relationship with each other. It is sometimes called a parenting plan or a co-parenting plan, and in BC it sits within the broader framework of family law agreements under the Family Law Act.

Co-parenting arrangements come in all shapes. A lesbian couple using a known sperm donor who will be an involved third parent. Two friends who deliberately decided to have a child together. A gay man and a woman who connected on a co-parenting platform. A polyamorous group planning a family together. BC law can accommodate up to five legal parents through pre-conception agreements, which means more family structures are legally recognizable here than almost anywhere else in Canada.

Whatever your structure looks like, the agreement serves the same purpose: clarity before the hard moments arrive.

Good to know

A co-parenting agreement is not the same as a separation agreement. It is drafted before the child is born, when everyone still agrees on the vision. That timing matters. Agreements made in goodwill, before conflict, are far more durable than ones negotiated in the middle of it.

Ask Journey

How many parents are planning to be involved in raising this child? The number changes what your agreement needs to address under BC law.

What BC law says about co-parenting

Under the Family Law Act, every parent who has lived with a child is automatically a guardian of that child. Guardians have parental responsibilities, which include decision-making authority over the child's education, healthcare, religious upbringing, and extracurricular activities. They also have parenting time, which is the time the child spends in their care.

A person who has never lived with the child is not automatically a guardian, even if they are a legal parent. That distinction matters in co-parenting arrangements where parents live in separate households from the start.

Co-parenting agreements can establish guardianship status, define parental responsibilities, set out parenting time schedules, and address how decisions will be made when parents disagree. Courts treat these agreements seriously, provided they genuinely reflect the child's best interests.

Important

Under BC law, the best interests of the child are the overriding consideration for any parenting arrangement. A co-parenting agreement that serves the adults' preferences but not the child's needs will not be upheld by a court. Draft with the child in mind, not just the plan.

What the agreement should cover

A well-drafted co-parenting agreement anticipates the questions you have not thought to ask yet. Here is what it needs to address.

Legal parentage and guardianship

Who are the legal parents? Who will be guardians? If conception is happening through assisted reproduction and a donor is involved, the agreement needs to address the donor's status explicitly. A donor who signs a pre-conception agreement confirming they will be a parent becomes a legal parent. A donor who does not want parental status needs a separate donor agreement saying so.

Guardianship determines who has decision-making authority for the child. Get this wrong and you may find yourself in a position where one parent cannot consent to their child's medical treatment or pick them up from school.


Ask Journey

Is everyone who will be involved in raising this child also going to be a legal parent? Or is someone taking on a parenting role without legal parentage? Journey can help you think through what that distinction means.

Parental responsibilities

Parental responsibilities under the Family Law Act cover the significant decisions in a child's life. Your agreement should address how those decisions will be made, and by whom.

  • Where the child will live primarily
  • School selection and educational decisions
  • Healthcare, including routine and emergency medical decisions
  • Religious upbringing, if relevant
  • Extracurricular activities and travel
  • What happens when parents disagree on a major decision


Co-parents do not have to split every decision equally. Some arrangements give one parent final say on certain categories; others require consensus. What matters is that the agreement is explicit, so no one is surprised.

Parenting time

Parenting time is the schedule: who has the child, when, and for how long. Your agreement should address not just the regular week but the parts of the calendar that generate the most conflict if left vague.

  • The regular weekly or fortnightly schedule
  • School holidays, long weekends, and summer
  • Statutory holidays and how they are shared or alternated
  • Special occasions: birthdays, cultural events, family milestones
  • What happens when one parent needs to change the schedule
  • How travel with the child is handled, including out-of-province and international travel

Ask Journey

Have you and your co-parent already talked through what the week-to-week schedule might look like? Journey can help you think through the parts of the calendar that tend to create conflict if they are not addressed upfront.

Financial responsibilities

Money is where a lot of co-parenting agreements fall short. Both parents have a legal obligation to financially support their child, and that obligation does not disappear because you have a written plan. Child support in BC is calculated under the federal Child Support Guidelines, based on the paying parent's income and the amount of time the child spends with each parent.

Your agreement should address:

  • Whether formal child support will be paid, and how it is calculated
  • How day-to-day expenses are shared, including groceries, clothing, and childcare
  • How special or extraordinary expenses are handled, including medical costs, tutoring, and extracurricular fees
  • What happens if one parent's financial situation changes significantly

Good to know

A co-parenting agreement cannot contract out of child support obligations. Even if both parents agree that neither will pay support, a court can revisit that if it is not in the child's best interests. Structure your financial terms to reflect the actual cost of raising the child, not just what is convenient to write down.

Communication and decision-making

How will you communicate as co-parents? This sounds like something you can figure out as you go, but families who address it in advance have far fewer disputes. Consider:

  • The primary method of communication between parents (text, email, a co-parenting app)
  • Response time expectations for routine and urgent matters
  • How you will share updates about the child's health, school, and activities
  • What happens when one parent makes a unilateral decision on something the agreement says requires consensus

Dispute resolution

Even the best co-parenting relationships hit friction. Your agreement should set out what happens when it does, before anyone is angry enough to reach for a lawyer.

A dispute resolution clause typically moves through steps: direct conversation first, then mediation with a neutral third party, and only then formal legal proceedings. Building this in costs nothing and can save a significant amount of money and conflict if it is ever needed.

Ask Journey

Is there anything about your co-parenting arrangement that already feels uncertain or potentially complicated? Naming it now, before the agreement is drafted, is exactly the right time to get legal advice on it.

What happens if circumstances change

Life does not stay still. People move, relationships shift, careers change, new partners arrive. Your agreement should address what happens when the circumstances it was built around are no longer the circumstances you are living in.

  • What triggers a review of the agreement
  • How a parent's relocation is handled, particularly if it affects the parenting schedule
  • How new partners or step-parents are introduced to the child 
  •  What happens if one parent becomes seriously ill or dies

    Under the Family Law Act, a parenting agreement can always be varied by a court if there has been a material change in circumstances since the agreement was made. Building a review mechanism into the agreement itself gives both parents a structured way to revisit it without it having to become a court application.

What happens without an agreement

Without a written co-parenting agreement, the Family Law Act's default rules apply. Both parents who have lived with the child are guardians. Decision-making authority is shared. Parenting time is whatever the parents informally agree to, until they do not agree anymore.

When informal arrangements break down, the parties end up in negotiation or court, trying to establish what everyone intended from the beginning. That process is expensive, slow, and hard on children. It is also completely avoidable.

The families who need a co-parenting agreement the most are often the ones who feel they need it the least, because everything seems fine right now. An agreement is not a sign of distrust. It is a sign that both parents are serious about doing this well.

How Pathway Legal can help

Co-parenting agreements are one of the most forward-thinking things you can do for your child. They are also one of the most specific, because every family's structure, intentions, and circumstances are different.

At Pathway Legal, we draft co-parenting agreements for families across BC, including families with two parents, three parents, and more complex structures. We serve clients from our offices in Victoria, Nanaimo, Vancouver, and Surrey, and by video for families anywhere in the province.

We offer a money-back guarantee on the initial consultation fee. Come in, tell us your situation, and we will give you a clear picture of what your agreement needs to cover and what it will take to get it done right. If it is not the right fit, you do not pay.

Ask Journey – Surrogacy Law in BC FAQ
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Surrogacy Law in BC

Real questions. Straight answers. No legal jargon required.

Yes! Surrogacy is legal in BC. What is not allowed is paying a surrogate a fee or wage for carrying a child. Surrogates can be reimbursed for reasonable pregnancy-related expenses. That is the altruistic model of surrogacy that BC law requires.

Not automatically, and this surprises a lot of people. In BC, the birth mother is recognized as the legal parent at birth, regardless of genetics. Intended parents need to take legal steps, usually through a Declaration of Parentage, to have their parentage officially confirmed.

The good news: BC allows pre-birth court orders and agreements, so you can have this sorted before your child even arrives.

A lot. A well-drafted surrogacy agreement covers medical decision-making during pregnancy, reimbursable expenses, what happens in the event of complications, communication expectations between the parties, and how parentage will be confirmed.

It is one of the most important legal documents you will ever sign if you are creating your family through a surrogacy arrangement.

Yes, and this is not optional. Independent legal advice for the surrogate is a foundational requirement of a sound surrogacy arrangement. Each party needs their own legal counsel to ensure the agreement is fair, informed, and enforceable.

That is exactly why the surrogacy agreement matters so much. BC law provides some protections, but it does not resolve every scenario on its own. Disputes over expenses, disagreements about medical decisions, or unexpected changes in circumstances can all arise.

A thorough agreement drafted from the start is your best protection if things do not go as planned.

This is one of the questions we hear most often, and the honest answer is . . . it is complicated. BC law gives surrogates the right to make decisions about their own bodies during pregnancy. What the law says at birth, and what recourse intended parents have, depends on the specific circumstances.

This article is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Family law is fact-specific and the law changes. Reading this does not create a lawyer-client relationship with Pathway Legal. For advice about your situation, consult a qualified BC family law lawyer.