The maximum contact principle in Ontario: what it means now

The short version: The maximum contact principle is the old name for an idea still at the centre of Ontario parenting law: a child should have as much time with each parent as fits the child's best interests. Since 2021 the Divorce Act has dropped the phrase, and the Supreme Court of Canada has confirmed there is no automatic right to equal, 50/50 time. What actually moves a judge is evidence that you support your children's relationship with their mother and can cooperate with her. The parent who does that has the edge, because the law lists it as a factor.

Most separated fathers hear "maximum contact" and assume it guarantees them half the time. It does not, and walking into court believing it does is how good dads lose ground. The men who do best understand what the principle actually rewards, and build around it long before a judge sees the file.

What is the maximum contact principle in Ontario?

It is the older name for a rule that still drives every parenting decision: a child should spend as much time with each parent as is consistent with the child's best interests. For years the Divorce Act called this the "maximum contact" principle. The 2021 amendments renamed it. The current wording says a court allocating parenting time "shall give effect to the principle that a child should have as much time with each spouse as is consistent with the best interests of the child" (Divorce Act, section 16(6)).

The shift in language matters. "Maximum contact" sounded like a promise of equal time. "Parenting time consistent with best interests" is honest about the order of operations: the child's best interests come first, and time follows from that, not the other way around.

If you and the children's mother were never married, the Divorce Act does not apply to your parenting case. The Children's Law Reform Act does, and since March 2021 it carries the same best-interests test almost word for word (section 24). Either way, the principle is the same, and so is the misunderstanding worth clearing up first: this is not a rule that hands you half the calendar. We cover how the two pieces fit together in decision-making and parenting time in Ontario.

Does Ontario presume equal, 50/50 parenting time?

No. There is no presumption of equal time, and assuming there is one is the most common mistake separated dads make. In Barendregt v. Grebliunas, the Supreme Court of Canada said plainly that the maximum contact principle was never a presumption of shared or equal parenting, and is "only significant to the extent that it is in the child's best interests" (2022 SCC 22).

The Court went further. It said that going forward the maximum contact principle "is better referred to as the parenting time factor" — one factor among many, never a starting score of 50/50 that the other parent has to knock down.

For you, this is freeing once you accept it. You do not get equal time because the law owes it to you. You get the parenting time you can show is good for your children. That moves the question from "what am I entitled to" to "what can I demonstrate," and the second question is one you can actually do something about, starting this month. The fathers who go in expecting 50/50 as a right tend to argue with the judge. The fathers who go in ready to show why their time matters to their kids tend to get it.

Why does the cooperative parent have the advantage?

Because cooperation is not a personality trait the court happens to like. It is written into the best interests test as a factor the judge has to weigh. The Divorce Act tells the court to consider each parent's willingness to support the child's relationship with the other parent (section 16(3)(c)), and each parent's ability and willingness to communicate and cooperate on matters affecting the child (section 16(3)(i)).

Read those two factors together and the advantage is obvious. The parent who keeps the other parent informed, stays flexible, and never runs the other one down is scoring on factors the judge is required to score. The parent who blocks, withholds, or undermines is scoring against themselves on the same list. This is what lawyers used to call the "friendly parent" idea, and it survived every rewrite of the statute because it tracks what is genuinely good for children.

This is also why the angriest parent in the room is usually the one losing. It is hard to look like the parent who supports the relationship while sending hostile texts about the other one. If you want the edge the law actually offers, become the parent the factors describe. The same conduct that wins you points here is the conduct that keeps you out of trouble elsewhere, which we cover in what not to do in family court in Ontario.

What does supporting the other relationship look like day to day?

It looks ordinary, and that is the point. Judges do not reward grand gestures. They reward a steady pattern of small, documented choices that put the children first. In practice that means a few specific things.

1. Keep her informed about school, health, and activities without being asked.
2. Stay flexible when she needs to swap a weekend, and expect the same back.
3. Hand the children off on time, calmly, and without using the doorway to argue.
4. Encourage the kids to call her when they are with you.
5. Never run her down in front of them, in texts, or in documents.

Then write it down. A parenting log — a simple dated record of the time you spend and the cooperation you show — turns "I am the reasonable one" into something a judge can see. Memory fades and stories compete, but a contemporaneous record holds up. A free five-minute intake will map where your parenting-time position stands and what to track first. The opposite pattern, where one parent tries to erase the other, has its own name and its own consequences, which we cover in parental alienation in Ontario.

Can being the cooperative parent backfire?

It can, if you confuse cooperation with surrender. They are not the same. Cooperation means being reasonable and child-focused. Surrender means giving up parenting time you should keep because conflict is uncomfortable. You can be the flexible parent and still hold a firm line on the schedule that matters.

The honest risk is the parent who takes your reasonableness as a green light to take more. If the children's mother starts withholding the kids, cancelling your time, or refusing to communicate, the answer is not to match her. It is to keep being the steady one and record the pattern, because her conduct now counts against her on the exact same factors. A documented history of you cooperating and her obstructing is one of the strongest positions a separated father can hold. If you are already there, start with what to do when your ex won't let you see your kids in Ontario.

Cooperation is a strategy, not a weakness. Played right, it makes you the parent the law was written to favour, and it makes any obstruction by the other side look like exactly what it is.

Does cooperation matter for decision-making, not just parenting time?

Yes, and this is the part most fathers miss. Ontario law splits parenting into two separate things: parenting time, which is when the children are with each of you, and decision-making responsibility, which is who decides the big questions about school, health, and religion. The cooperation factor shapes both, but it is decisive on the second.

A court is far more likely to order joint decision-making, where both parents decide together, when it sees two people who can communicate. It is far less likely to do so when one parent has made joint decisions impossible. If you want a real say in where your children go to school or how a medical issue is handled, the evidence that earns it is the same evidence that earns parenting time: a track record of communicating like an adult.

This is why running the other parent down is so costly. It does not just dent your parenting-time case. It hands the court a reason to give the other parent sole decision-making, and to cut you out of the choices that matter most. The mechanics of how the two halves fit together are in decision-making and parenting time in Ontario.

The one thing to do this week

Start a parenting log today. Open a single note or document and add one dated line every time you support your children's relationship with their mother — a swap you accommodated, information you passed along, a handoff that went smoothly, a call you encouraged. It takes 30 seconds a day, and in six months it becomes the clearest evidence you have that you are the cooperative parent the best interests test rewards.

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