Dead beat parents look out - you've got to pay - new legislation is coming

April 28, 2010

LEGISLATION WOULD ENCOURAGE MAKING FAMILY SUPPORT PAYMENTS
Proposals Include Stiffer Sanctions; Improved Enforcement is Key: Swan
Proposed legislation would take further steps to make sure Manitoba children benefit from financial support ordered by the courts, Attorney General Andrew Swan said today after introducing the proposals in the legislature.

“The end of a relationship shouldn’t be the start of financial hard times for children and families, caused by parents ignoring their financial obligations,” said Swan. “Kids need proper support; good intentions won’t fill their lunch boxes.”

Amendments proposed in the strengthened enforcement of family support payments and miscellaneous amendments act would support the use of a new computer system and enhance enforcement tools and options available to the Maintenance Enforcement Program including:

· increasing fines to a maximum of $10,000 and jail time to a maximum of 200 days for debtors who are wilfully in default;

· providing for support deduction notices, a new administrative enforcement tool;

· providing for financial penalties to be imposed on debtors who fail to pay maintenance or fail to pay on time;

· adding the ability to charge to the debtor the cost of certain enforcement actions required to be taken because of their failure to pay; and

· restricting the duration of court orders suspending the enforcement of a maintenance order by the Maintenance Enforcement Program and the circumstances in which a suspension order could be made.

The Family Maintenance Act would be amended by the new legislation to allow a child-support order to be recalculated even though a party fails to provide updated financial information, clarify that initial orders of child support could be made retroactively as well as for the future and spell out the court’s authority to order genetic testing to help determine a child’s parentage.

Proposed changes would also clarify that responses to applications to vary orders need to take into consideration material changes in circumstances that have occurred since the order was made or last changed.
The proposed legislation would also amend the Court of Queen's Bench Act. The change would oblige court-appointed family evaluators helping with custody, access and other related family matters to report to the court the refusal of any party to co-operate with them. The court could draw any inference from the refusal that it considers appropriate.

The amendments would also mean Manitoba would have the toughest sanctions in Canada for debtors who wilfully default on their support payments. An example of someone wilfully defaulting might be a person who hides their assets.



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