The law requires that children under 40lbs or under 6yrs of age be properly restrained in an appropriate restraint that is used according to manufacturer's instructions. The driver is responsible for the children in the vehicle. Once the child is over 40lbs or over 6yrs old they fall in to the seatbelt law which states that the entire seatbelt assembly must be snugly adjusted and worn in the correct orientation.
So far as penalties go, the ticket is $115 per ticketed offense. Seats can be ticketed multiple times if there are multiple things wrong and officers are able to ticket multiple times for each seat in the vehicle if they want to. For example, if you have 2 forward-facing seats that are installed without a top tether, have the seatbelt through the wrong belt path, and the harness is loose and not adjusted to the right height, they could issue 3 tickets for each seat. Emphasis here is on the word "could" because most of the time they don't ticket on every possible thing and it is up to the discretion of the officer as to whether they issue a ticket or not. The areas that can be ticketed for are top tether (forward-facing only,) installation, and harness use.
Alberta has a program available in some areas called option 4 that may be offered to the driver in some circumstances. The police officer isn't obligated to offer the option, but if they do, it gives the driver the choice of taking a 2hr information session and having their ticket dropped instead of paying the fine.
Last I heard, only about 1/3 of drivers who are ticketed and offered option 4 actually make use of the option 4 class. The remainder just pay the ticket. Option 4 classes aren't offered in all areas of the province, and officers frequently don't offer it if other serious offenses are involved - for instance dangerous driving or confiscating drugs etc.
eta: I didn't realize that the law originally was 40lbs or 5yrs old. I wonder when it was raised to 6yrs old?
