F. Information To Be Specified in Order

• Author: Julien D. Payne - Marilyn A. Payne
• Pages: 422-423

Page 422

It is imperative that all orders for child support include a recital so that staff, lawyers and the court can readily determine the financial basis on which an order was made.²³⁰Generally, the parties, their attendances and the documents relied upon should be included in the preamble to an order of the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench. The purpose of a preamble is to provide a setting for what follows. It should provide context but should not include facts, terms of the order, or reasons for the order. A slightly different approach to the norm exists when dealing with divorce and corollary relief orders. This arises because Rules 561.1 to 579.3 and particularly Rule 575.1 of the Alberta Rules of Court prescribe the form of order to follow. The Forms are set out in Schedule B to the Rules. In Forms 17 through 19, over and above the usual context, the order provides for a recitation of the Guidelines income of the respective parties and the names and birth dates of each child. While section 13 of the Federal Child Support Guidelines specifies what must be included in a child support order, it does not specify what should be in the preamble. Consequently, the preamble is governed by the Alberta Rules and prescribed Forms, while the body of the order formalizes the court’s direction on the various issues raised.²³¹A child support order or variation order made in accordance with the Federal Child Support Guidelines must be segregated from spousal support and the child support order must include the following information:

(a) the name and birth date of each child to whom the order relates;

(b) the income of any spouse whose income is used to determine the amount of the child support order;²³²

(c) the amount set out in the applicable provincial or territorial table for the number of children to whom the order relates;

(d) the amount determined under paragraph 3(2)(b) for a child the age of majority or over;

Page 423

(e) the particulars of any expense described in section 7(1), the child to whom the expense relates, and the amount of the expense or, where that amount cannot be determined, the proportion to be paid in relation to the expense; and

(f) the date on which the first payment is payable and the day of the month on which all subsequent payments are to be made.²³³

The inclusion of the above information is mandatory. It is required for the purposes of facilitating both the enforcement and variation of support orders. It is an error...