raise a child or an extended family at least but in alberta certain members of an extended family can be shut out of a child's life and i'm talking about grandparents over the years i've heard from numerous grandparents who are grief stricken at being denied access to their grandchildren it is argued that it is in the best interests of the child to be acquainted with their extended family and to have a place in that family access is the child's right and should not be used as a form of punishment by the parents or the grandparents for wrongs either real or imagined and yes grandparents can at their own cost go to civil court and try to convince a judge to allow them access to their grandchildren but this is onerous expensive time consuming and some would say unnatural access custody and guardianship is governed by half a dozen provincial statutes and three different courts a bewildering maze to work your way through for a non-lawyer especially when all you want to do is have a relationship with your grandchild section 19 of the provincial court act does contain a specific provision for grandparent access and it describes the process of access and custody for a child and the criteria for the best interests of the child however the family law act allows the parents the right to determine the individuals they want their children to associate with and the court can only grant a leave of application for contact with the child if it's determined to be in the best interest of the child it's bewildering frustrating and heartbreaking we need a better non-adversarial method to address this situation on behalf of grandparents including one of my constituents wendy walker i asked the government to work toward an improved role for grandparents one that is not defined by court litigation thank you