Mr. Chair, the Standing Committee on Social Programs met during the week of April 25 to May 2, 2008, and again on May 20 to review Bill 5, An Act to Amend the Maintenance Orders Enforcement Act. Public hearings took place in Fort Resolution, Hay River, Inuvik, Norman Wells and Yellowknife. The committee would also like to thank the Ministry, its officials and all the witnesses who spoke on the bill. The clause-by-clause review of the bill was held on June 5.

Bill 5 contains many new ways to enforce child support and other maintenance orders when a person who owes money is not making their payments. One of the new enforcement measures is suspension of a debtor’s driver’s licence. The suspension can have conditions that will allow the debtor who needs his or her licence for work or medical reasons to drive for these purposes.

Originally the bill gave the maintenance enforcement administrator the discretion to grant these conditions. The committee moved an amendment to take away the administrators’ discretion so that they will be required to grant the conditions if they are satisfied the debtor needs the licence for work or medical reasons. The Minister concurred with this amendment. One witness asked what would happen if a debtor whose licence had been suspended needed to drive in order to be able to visit his or her child. The Minister and his officials claimed that the only available conditions to allow the debtor to drive would be medical or employment reasons. The provision was intended to encourage debtors to make their maintenance payments, and making it easy would undermine that purpose.

Another witness asked whether seizing money from a registered retirement savings plan or income fund amounts to a double penalty for the debtor. The Minister and his officials advised that they do not consider any tax consequences of seizing these funds to be a penalty to the debtor and that all

maintenance enforcement actions have associated costs either with the office or the debtor or both. The seizure of money from an RRSP or an RRIF would only take place near the end of the debt collection strategy when other measures have failed.

During the public hearings the committee heard questions about whether and how the Maintenance Enforcement Office can collect a debtor’s cash, wages and/or honoraria received from serving on councils and boards. The Minister and his officials confirmed that the Maintenance Enforcement Office does not have the authority to collect this money. Bill 6 will indirectly improve the ability to collect in these cases, because it includes new powers for the Maintenance Enforcement Office to get information about debtors — for example, by advertising in the newspaper. These powers make it more likely that the administrator would find out about cash payments the debtor is receiving.

One witness questioned the accountability of the Maintenance Enforcement Office, and in particular the qualifications to interpret business records. The Minister and his officials indicated that case workers are expected to return calls promptly and will receive intensive training on confidentiality. On cases involving complex business information, they work closely with the Audit Bureau and legal counsel to ensure that records are correctly interpreted. The Minister and his officials stressed that they want to keep service levels high and would like to hear about any concerns.

The committee also heard concerns from some witness about the fairness of child support orders — for example, the lack of consequences for a parent who makes false allegations of child abuse against the other parent. While these matters are outside the scope of this bill, the committee would welcome further discussions on this issue with the Minister.

During the clause-by-clause review the committee and Minister also agreed to one minor, non-substantive amendment to the bill. Following the clause-by-clause review a motion was carried to report Bill 5 as amended and reprinted to the Assembly as ready for Committee of the Whole.

This concludes the committee’s general comments on Bill 5. Individual committee members may have questions or comments as we proceed.