Note: Is it possible that NACSOW has paid staff to provide input to Justice Canada on
this? Wouldn't it be nice if family-friendly organizations could get at least a
little bit of funding to cover their efforts and expenses for this?
Let there be no misconception in anyone's mind about this. This is related to the
reviews that the Justice Department is obligated to engage itself in to
monitor the impact and status of the effects of the implementations of Bill C-41. It
is quite obvious that they have considered that to be the mandate for the establishment of
a massive sector of their bureaucracy. Here is a quote from page four of the
discussion paper:
1.3 PROGRAMS OF RESEARCH
The FPT Task Force on Child Support Implementation established the FPT Research
Subcommittee to help develop the research framework in mid-1996. After a series of
conference calls, a small group of provincial and federal representatives met in January
1997 to begin elaborating the requirements for monitoring the guidelines component of the
initiative. The subcommittee now includes at least one representative from each
province and territory, a representative from Statistics Canada (the Canadian Centre for
Justice Statistics, or CCJS) and a representative from Treasury Board of Canada,
Secretariat.
The subcommittee holds regular conference calls and periodic joint meetings to.
establish consensus on short- and long-term research requirements and to promote
cooperation and collaboration on research activities of mutual interest. Members
clearly realize the advantages of coordinating their activities to avoid overlap or
duplication of effort.
The overall research framework is designed to address the need for ongoing data
collection and analyses to monitor the major components of the Child Support
Initiative. To this end, five major programs of research are being developed. 3
Research activities include the following.
Monitoring the implementation and functioning of the guidelines. This includes
monitoring the effects of changing federal and provincial tax parameters on the table
amounts.
Monitoring the enhanced enforcement measures, such as tracing and licence and
passport withholding; conducting a feasibility study on the creation of a "new
hires" program to help locate debtors' income; helping Statistics Canada develop the
annual Maintenance Enforcement Survey; and undertaking a national study of the reasons for
default on or compliance with support orders.
Identifying the communications and law information needs of various groups.
Evaluating selected innovative provincial and territorial projects, such as
those that help the public calculate and negotiate appropriate
child support agreements
and those that promote enforcement of
child support orders.
Conducting special studies to establish baseline and trend information relating
to child support order amounts, child custody arrangements and family issues in
general. Specific Statistics Canada surveys and databases will be particularly
valuable for these purposes.
[Orignal emphasis --WHS]
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3 Since the programs of research are not mutually exclusive, there will be some overlap
and duplication in the research issues and strategies. In any event, in moving from
issue identification to development of specific research strategies, we intend to address
multiple issues wherever practicable.
4
