In a child protection proceeding, the maternal great-aunt brought a motion to be added as a party to seek access to the child.
The child's mother was deceased, and the child had been placed with the paternal grandmother since birth.
The Society sought a final order granting sole custody to the paternal grandmother.
The court applied the five-part test for adding a party and found that adding the great-aunt solely to pursue an access claim would unduly delay the proceeding and was not in the child's best interests, as the child required permanency.
The motion was dismissed, without prejudice to the great-aunt bringing a subsequent access claim under the Children's Law Reform Act.
