The short answer is “yes”.

The Supreme Court of Canada has stated that child support is the right of the child and COVID does not change that court ruling.

The real question is do you have to pay child support if your income is decreased due to COVID related employment issues. For this you can take a 3 step approach:

1. Contact the other parent and see if you can agree to a reduction in child support while your income is decreased. If you can do that make sure that it is documented in a court order and filed with the court.
2. If you and the other parent cannot agree then you might want to try mediation to help you come to a resolution.
3. If you still cannot agree you will need to apply to the court to have your child support adjusted to an appropriate level.

Make sure that the child support aligns with the numbers in the section 3 child support guideline tables

If The Director of Maintenance Enforcement ( MEP) administers the child support for you  make sure MEP gets a copy of the court order. If you do not do that, MEP continues to enforce the child support at the previous amounts. This can result in unnecessary garnisheeing of bank accounts and employment income as arrears ( the unpaid child support ) accumulates. MEP has other enforcement powers such as restricting your ability to renew your drivers licence and registration  , suspending your drivers  licence and taking your tax refund.

The bottom line is that you need to get the child support adjusted so that you do not fall behind ( go into arrears) and get a court order to MEP so that they know.

When you and your partner separate it can be a stressful time and that stress ( along with the relationship history) can cause strife and conflict between you.

Usually the first family members to feel this will be your children.

This is easy to say but not so easy to do – separate your adult relationship from your parenting relationship. Even after your adult relationship ends your children need the parenting relationship to continue. Children need both parents in their lives.

1. You are mourning the relationship breakdown. That means you will go through the stages of mourning – just as with any other loss you will experience mood changes. Remember this is a process and you will go through stages where you feel better than other times. Be kind to yourself – and your ex partner.
2. Children can sense what you are thinking. You will not be able to hide any negative thoughts you have about the other parent. Always think and speak positively about the other parent. It will help you and your children work to create ( and maintain) a positive parenting relationship. If in doubt, assume the best of the other parent.
3. If there are parenting concerns discuss them openly. If needed seek professional help to identify, understand and solve them.
4. Do not involve your children in the conflict and your disagreements. This means not having the ‘hard’ discussions around them, in their ear shot or where there is any chance they will hear.
5. Be the person your child truly wishes you to be. If you do not know what this means , be the person your dog thinks you are.
6. Support your children’s relationship with the other parent in the same way that you would want the other parent to support the children’s relationship with you.
7. If both parents keep to the COVID protocols there is no reason why the children cannot see both parents on the same schedule as Pre Covid. In fact if the other parent ( or you) are unemployed or have shortened workhours this might be a good time to increase the time they spend with each of you.

COVID had the effect of affording the opportunity for  reintroducing parents into their children’s lives by having many people work from home. It also introduced financial pressures as household budgets exceeded household income. The uncertainty and  constantly shifting information about COVID and transmission raised our stress levels and medical ‘ experts’ and media’ experts’ vied for the title ‘Supreme COVID expert’. Through it all the needs of our children did not change. They needed to be protected from stresses they could do nothing about. They needed to two homes and one parenting plan.