Interprovincial Enforcement of Maintenance Orders: New Principles, New Approaches

The author points out that the existing legislative scheme for interprovincial enforcement of maintenance orders is premised on common law rules which have nowbeen rejected by the Supreme Court of Canada. Those same Supreme Court decisions have opened the door for new legislative approaches to intra-Canadian enforcement of these obligations. This paper surveys a variety of new responses based on models in other federal states and on conventions implementing international maintenance enforcement schemes. It examines the pros and cons of each and concludes that any one of them would be superior to the scheme now in force in Canada.