Merci, Monsieur le President. Today I will speak about the complex legal issues involving parental payments following separation between spouses and their dependent children.
Our Children's Law Act provides the legal framework for this support under Child Support Guidelines which also specify how maintenance payments will be calculated. Typically, a court order is issued specifying the amount of child support owed and establishing an annual process for evaluating and resetting the amount of support to be paid. These court orders usually say that parties will exchange financial information annually to accommodate changes in the cost of living. However and here's the problem the law and the guidelines provide no means to require the payment of any changed maintenance support resulting from this annual review.
When I asked about this situation on behalf of a constituent, I was told that the maintenance enforcement program "does not currently do recalculations and that in order for the maintenance enforcement program to change the child support amount, the spouse receiving support would need to:
Take the matter back to court and obtain a new court order with a new amount; or
Provide maintenance enforcement with a signed and notarized agreement between the estranged parents specifying the new amount.
So despite a process for support calculation having been established by court order, the justice department will not act to implement the changes unless the support recipient goes back to court every year or can convince the former spouse to enter into an agreement, which could only be concluded if both parents are cooperative.
In the worst case, this could require a parent to go back to court every year as many as 18 years to reset the amount. In all the provinces, adjustments are automatic. It should also be noted that for persons on limited income, legal aid from family lawyers is very difficult to obtain owing to a lack of family law practitioners in the NWT.
When I took this matter to the Minister of Justice, he said that his department intends to launch a child support recalculation service by January 1, 2022. To my knowledge, this has not happened. I'll be asking for an update on the current status so parents can hopefully receive adequate child support without having to repeatedly go back to court. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Members' statements. Member for Monfwi.
