CANADA Law and Practice Contributed by: Heather Hansen, Shannon Beddoe, Maureen Edwards and Victoria Lunetta, McCarthy Hansen & Company LLP
of parenting time, each parent’s yearly salary, and the needs of the child. The Federal Child Support Guidelines are designed to advance the best interests of children and to ensure that child support orders are fair, objective, and consist - ent across Canada, as well as straightforward and inexpensive to review on an annual basis. To calculate the support owing in any given year, the Federal Child Support Guidelines mandate that parents provide certain financial information to one other on request. Child support orders based on the Federal Child Support Guidelines are enforceable across Canada. In cases where the parties can reach an agree - ment on child support issues, there is no require - ment that the agreement be presented to the court. In these circumstances (ie, where there is no court involvement), the parties can reach agreements that do not necessarily follow the Federal Child Support Guidelines. However, if the parties were married and seek a divorce order, then the child support arrangements will be scrutinised by the court and the court will not grant the divorce until it is satisfied that the children have been appropriately provided for. Usually this requires compliance with the Feder - al Child Support Guidelines – although there are exceptions where special arrangements have been made that benefit the children. In Canada, courts routinely make orders in rela - tion to child support. Typically, there is no time limit or fixed duration set with regard to such orders at first instance. Rather, child support will end for a child when that child ceases to be a child entitled to support, as that term is defined by the common law in the relevant jurisdiction. This can happen as a result of various circum - stances, which include but are not limited to: • a child no longer lives with the parents;
• a child becomes self-supporting; • a child turns 18 years of age, unless unable to become self-supporting owing to illness, disability, or other reasons; • a child obtains one post-secondary degree or diploma; • a child marries; • a child dies; or • a party dies, provided appropriate security is in place at the time of death. Under the Federal Divorce Act, only spouses are able to bring an application for child sup - port. However, under provincial legislation there are limited circumstances in which a child may bring their own child support application. Typi - cally, this requires a child who is under the age of 18 (or who has not yet completed high school) to demonstrate that they have not voluntarily with- drawn from parental control – see, for example, Letourneau v Haskell (1979) and G(O) v G(R) (2017). 3.3 Other Matters With limited exceptions, courts do not have the power to make orders that dictate the upbringing of a child. Decision-making responsibility is the right of a person to make decisions about the child. In a situation where parents have diverging views on a specific issue relating to the child, it is the court’s role to determine which parent is best equipped to make the determination of what is in the child’s best interests. Thereafter, it is up to the parent who has been granted decision- making responsibility to exercise that responsi - bility in a manner that is consistent with the best
interests of the child. Parental Alienation
Parental alienation is a serious issue, which first started to be identified by Ontario courts in the 1990s and has become an increasingly preva -
101 CHAMBERS.COM
Powered by FlippingBook