A. Introduction

• Author: Julien D. Payne - Marilyn A. Payne
• Pages: 1-2

Page 1

Before the implementation of the Federal Child Support Guidelines in Canada on May 1, 1997, empirical data in Canada indicate that a divorced custodial parent was unlikely to receive more than twenty percent of the net income of the paying spouse and parent as spousal and/or child support. It is not surprising, therefore, that single mothers and their children represented a disproportionate percentage of the poverty classes. This societal problem, which has not been confined to Canada, led to the implementation of mandatory child support guidelines in England, Australia, New Zealand, the United States, as well as in Canada. The guidelines are premised on objectively based numerical indicators of the specific amount of child support that an individual should normally pay by agreement or court order on marriage breakdown or divorce or to a single parent.

As of May 1, 1997, child support rights and obligations under the Divorce Act underwent a radical change. The previous child support regime applying under the Divorce Act, which was premised on the exercise of an unfettered judicial discretion, was rejected by the government as unpredictable, inconsistent, costly and unfair to children. Recognition of these limitations of the judicial discretionary regime led to major research studies being undertaken by the Federal/Provincial/Territorial Family Law Committee for several years prior to the legislative and regulatory changes. These studies produced changes in the following four key areas. First, child support paid under orders or agreements made on or after May 1, 1997 is no longer taxed as income to the recipient, nor is it tax...