Deadbeats find safe haven in Nunavut

JOHN THOMPSON

Public consultations are underway to improve Nunavut’s Maintenance Orders Enforcement Act, to make it more difficult for deadbeat spouses to dodge paying child and spousal support payments.

Right now, maintenance enforcement officers in Nunavut have less power than their counterparts anywhere else in the country.

“We don’t do a very great job, but everyone else does,” says Jessica Lott of the Government of Nunavut’s Department of Justice, who oversees the public consultations. “Nunavut is way down at the bottom.”

And, warns a consultation document produced by the justice department, “without the ability to encourage or force people to pay their support payments, it is possible that Nunavut may become a safe haven for people who owe money in other places.”

Currently $2.7 million in arrears is owed to children and families in 260 cases registered with Nunavut’s Maintenance Enforcement Program.

At present, Nunavut’s maintenance enforcement officers can’t ask deadbeats for their social insurance number, home phone number, email address, or other questions that their counterparts in other jurisdictions use to help collect arrears.

“Not being able by law to ask the right questions, even when the answers might be obvious in a small community, ties the hands of the MEP and prevents money from getting where it belongs – to children and families,” the consultation document says.

Some other jurisdictions make it an offence to lie to an MEP officer, to send a stronger message to deadbeats who currently provide false information.

Arrears are especially difficult to collect in Nunavut. Other jurisdictions allow MEP to garnish salaries for arrears, but not Nunavut, where only the monthly amount ordered by court may be taken from salaries.

If someone does not make child support payments, the Nunavut MEP’s only recourse is to take them back to court. That’s “very slow, costly and ineffective in the long term,” the consultation document says.

Property and money may be seized from a person who owes child support in some provinces, where the MEP possesses greater powers.

Deadbeats in Nunavut are also able to hide money in companies they own. Some other jurisdictions make a company owned by someone owing child support liable for these debts.

And deadbeats elsewhere in Canada may find money deducted from the RRSP savings and lottery wins. Or their professional association, such as a union or law society, may be informed of their debts.

Nunavut’s present legislation wastes money, the consultation document says, by dealing with routine procedures, such as closing a child support claim when a child turns 18, or when the payor’s income changes, in court, whereas in other jurisdictions this is handled by the MEP administrator.

Elsewhere, Ontario has successfully dealt with stubborn deadbeats for the last decade by seizing drivers’ licenses until support payments are made. Simply sending out a first warning letter led to the successful collection of $415 million, followed by an additional $84.6 million after a second letter, after the policy began in the province in 1997.

Of course, owning a car in Nunavut is less common than in Ontario.

Another, more controversial possibility could be to restrict hunting rights – although the legality of suspending aboriginal hunting rights, entrenched in the Nunavut land claim agreement, would be in question, Lott says.

In recent weeks, the government of Ontario has received much attention for a new initiative to post the photos of deadbeat spouses on a website, with the hope of shaming these parents into making owed child support payments.

No such recommendation is included in the GN’s consultation document, but members of the public are welcome to make suggestions of their own, Lott says.

Maintenance enforcement staff have told Lott other improvements could be made, beyond strengthening existing legislation.

Nunavut’s Maintenance Enforcement Program office is staffed by one administrator and two assistants, who are responsible for tracking each child payment file for the territory. Not surprisingly, these workers say they lack resources.

They also say parents owed money could help more, by doing their best to keep track of where the deadbeat spouse lives.

Public consultations were to be held in Cambridge Bay on Feb. 8 inside the Elders centre.

Consultations will also be held in Iqaluit Feb. 15 inside the Justice building, and in Rankin Inlet, tentatively Feb. 13, although bad weather may cause a reschedule, as of press time.

Residents may email written comments to Lott, at jlott@gov.nu.ca.
Residents may also submit comments by phone. English and French speakers may phone Lott at 975-6304. Inuktitut speakers may phone Connie Merkosak at 975-6315.