Tags: Lifestyle, Lifestyle - Family, Lucien Khodeir, Politics, Politics - Law

Canadian child-support guidelines a scandal

Damages could easily surpass $20 billion by 2013.

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October 30, 2012

TORONTO, ON, Oct. 30,2012/ Troy Media/ - Two identical cases go before two different judges. One judge orders a $100 payment while the other judge orders a $400 payment. Can both orders possibly be reasonable?

Tom’s parents earn the same income. His father spends $500 on him while his mother spends $700 on him. The judge orders his father to pay $100 in child support. After the payment, his parents would have each spent $600 on him.

Ana’s parents earn the same income. Her mother spends $500 on her while her father spends $700 on her. Projecting that her father would spend $800 on her if she never visited her mother, the judge orders her mother to pay half of $800 in child support. After the payment, her mother would have spent $900 on her while her father would have spent $300 on her.

If one believes that the $100 child support is reasonable while believing that the $400 child support is not, then one cannot support Canada’s child-support guidelines in force since May 1997. Tom’s case illustrates a court order on child support before May 1997 while Ana’s case illustrates a court order on child support since May 1997.

The Divorce Act, Canada’s federal law on divorce, clearly spells out how child-support guidelines should be drafted in Canada. Two such drafts were attempted: Quebec’s child-support guidelines and Canada’s child-support guidelines. Quebec’s child-support guidelines comply with the Divorce Act while Canada’s child-support guidelines do not because they discriminate against two identifiable groups of divorced parents: the child-support-paying parents and the higher-income-earning parents. The discrimination is unquestionably not authorized by the Divorce Act.

For a child of divorced parents residing outside of Quebec, the amount of child support calculated according to Canada’s child-support guidelines is almost always greater than (and, at times, more than double) the amount of child support calculated according to Quebec’s child-support guidelines for a child of divorced parents residing in Quebec whose incomes are identical to the incomes of the divorced parents of the child residing outside of Quebec.

This situation can only possibly be reasonable if the average costs of raising children outside of Quebec is almost always greater than (and, at times, more than double) the average costs of raising children in Quebec. That gap in the average costs of raising children in Quebec and in the rest of Canada cannot possibly be realistic.

Relying on publications from two of Canada’s federal departments, Statistics Canada and the Department of Justice, one would conservatively estimate that 340,000 divorced parents pay $190 million every month in support (allegedly for the child) according to Canada’s child-support guidelines.

Relying on estimates of relative incomes between divorced parents and estimates of the relative components of the costs of raising children, one would estimate that, out of the $190 million of child support paid monthly, $100 million monthly is above what may reasonably be considered to be a fair amount of child support.

One would consequently estimate that the unfair content of the alleged child support paid according to Canada’s child-support guidelines will reach the $20 billion mark by the end of 2013.

The damages caused to 340,000 divorced parents by Canada’s child-support guidelines may easily surpass damages from the largest class action in Canada and classify Canada’s child-support guidelines as the longest-running most expensive scandal in the history of Canadian politics.

Troy Media columnist Lucien Khodeir is a Toronto tax consultant and the author of two books critical of Canada’s child-support guidelines available at: http://www.childrenwith2homes.ca/

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