Manitoba to assure child support payments

Community Action, May 19, 2003

WINNIPEG -- "It must be made absolutely clear to parents who owe child support that they did not divorce their children." stated Attorney General Gord McIntoch. Court ordered child support payments will be backed up by stronger enforcement under proposed legislation introduced.

The Improved Enforcement of Support Orders Payment Act, Part 2, proposes six new methods to help ensure children and families get the financial support they are legally entitled to.

New enforcement measures would include:

* automatic and continuous pay cheque deduction of child support payments where there is a pattern of default;

* an interest-like penalty of $20 for each late or missed payment;

* family compensation when late or missed payments result in increased costs or inconvenience;

* cost recovery of any collection action from the debtor;

* allowing enforcement action on all arrears when there is non-compliance with a repayment schedule; and

* giving legal effect to out-of-province orders to seize wages when neither parent lives in Manitoba but there is an income source.

Also, the possibility of a child support payment recalculation program is being explored to enable the amount of support owing to be updated or indexed on a regular basis when the payer's income changes which would eliminate the need for contested, time-consuming, complex court proceedings for many families.