There are four different types of child custody in Canada. The first one is sole custody whereby one parent alone has custody of the child. Another type of custody, joint custody, is where both parents share custody of the child. A third type of custody is shared custody. In this case, both parents have joint custody of the child and each spends at least 40% of the time with their child. One final type of child custody is split custody. This is a rare type of custody. Split custody takes place when one parent has custody over some of the children while the other parent has custody over the others. Courts are quite hesitant to award custody in this manner as they don’t want to split up brothers and sister.

The primary, or principal, residence is one where the child lives. In other words, this is where the child spends most of his/her time. For example, parents may have joint custody of the child but the child may spend the majority of the time with the mother or father, thereby having his/her primary residence with that parent.

http://www.canadiandivorcelaws.com/child-custody/