Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Of course, thank you to all of the members of this committee for the opportunity to present on an incredibly important bill, Bill C-78, an act to amend the Divorce Act, the Family Orders and Agreements Enforcement Assistance Act and the Garnishment, Attachment and Pension Diversion Act and to make consequential amendments to another act.
I am incredibly proud of the work our government has done to improve the lives of Canadians experiencing separation and divorce, particularly children. Bill C-78 is the cornerstone of this work.
Federal family laws have not been substantially updated in over 20 years. Over the past two decades, families have changed considerably, and so has our justice system. Our government understands that there is much to be done in order to improve federal family laws and family justice systems so that they better meet the needs of Canadians.
Separation and divorce can be incredibly difficult for families, especially children. For most Canadians, their only interaction with the justice system will be through the experience of family breakdown. Two million children in this country are impacted by separation and divorce. With this bill, we are taking concrete steps to help parents come to a timely and lasting resolution of their disputes, with the primary focus of what is best for their children.
Bill C-78 advances four important goals: promoting the best interests of the child, addressing family violence, reducing child poverty, and improving efficiencies and accessibility to the family justice system.
I will briefly address each of these in turn.
Promoting the best interests of the child is a common theme, tying together all policy initiatives reflected in this bill. The primacy of the best interests of the child is a fundamental principle of Canadian family law. Bill C-78 will further entrench and bolster this principle.
The bill includes a non-exhaustive list of criteria for a court to consider in determining the best interests of the child, including elements such as the child's needs, given the age and stage of development; the child's relationship with people in his or her life, especially parents, but also others such as grandparents; and the child's culture and heritage, including indigenous heritage.
The bill also proposes a primary consideration. Any plans for the child's care, any allocation of time or responsibilities, and any imposition of terms or conditions in a parenting order would have to be made on the basis that the child's physical, emotional and psychological safety, security and well-being must be considered above any other matter.
The bill also removes the archaic language of custody and access that the Divorce Act currently applies to parents' relationships with their children. The Ontario Court of Appeal and several associations of family justice professionals have highlighted that these labels focus more on parents winning and losing rather than on what is best for the child.
Instead, Bill C-78 embraces the principle that children are individuals who have their own needs and rights, and therefore, it proposes clear definitions of “parenting time” and “decision-making responsibility”. Children's rights organizations have been particularly supportive of this proposed change.
The bill does not contain any parenting presumptions, such as equal shared parenting. Rather, it focuses on what is best for each child. A presumption would force courts to impose one particular parenting arrangement on every family unless a party could convince the court otherwise. This would mean that judges would have to be actively involved in more cases to hear evidence to displace the presumption, which could increase conflict between parties and place additional and unnecessary pressure on already overloaded family courts.
Moreover, in cases that involve family violence, abused spouses may not have the financial or emotional resources to prove to a judge that the presumption would not be in the child's best interests. Fundamentally, a presumption would detract from the focus on the best interests of each individual child, which the bill aims to promote.
We know that each child and each family is different, and children deserve to have their own unique needs and situations considered. That is why we have taken this approach.
Bill C-78 will still preserve the maximum-contact principle that a child should spend as much time with each parent as is consistent with the best interests of that child. This would not be a parenting presumption, however, and it would be subject to the primary consideration of the child's physical, emotional and psychological safety, security and well-being.
For the first time ever, we are defining family violence in the Divorce Act. In Bill C-78, we have introduced an evidence-based definition of family violence that provides a non-exhaustive list of different forms of family violence and is designed to evolve over time to capture additional behaviours and patterns as our understanding of family violence expands.
This definition explicitly mentions “coercive and controlling” violence, which social scientists believe to be the most dangerous form of family violence. Again, this definition is designed to evolve over time to capture additional behaviours and patterns as our understanding of family violence expands.
The bill also proposes best interests of the child criteria to help courts draft a parenting order where there has been family violence. These criteria will also be subject to the primary consideration that the child's safety, security and well-being would be considered above all else.
The bill introduces other measures to keep family members—especially children—safe. The non-removal provisions will help prevent child abduction in appropriate cases. Another provision will remind courts of the option to order supervised parenting time to promote safety and reduce children's exposure to conflict.
Our government has committed to lifting Canadians out of poverty. In addition to initiatives like the Canada child benefit, we are supporting middle-class families by helping to ensure families facing separation and divorce have the support payments to which they are entitled. We know that families are especially financially vulnerable in these circumstances.
Single-parent families have a significantly lower median net worth than do couples with children and tend to have lower levels of employment. We also know that single-parent families are disproportionately led by women, so these financial pressures contribute to the feminization of poverty. Receiving a fair and accurate amount of child and spousal support can help prevent these families from experiencing poverty. Addressing family poverty helps to target child poverty, which we know can have long-lasting impacts. Bill C-78 therefore proposes several important changes to make it easier for families to receive the support to which they are entitled.
A significant impediment to families receiving the child support they need is parties' failure to disclose incomes, despite their obligation to do so. The bill will amend the Family Orders and Agreements Enforcement Assistance Act to allow the federal government to provide information from a party's tax returns to a court as well as other provincial services such as maintenance enforcement services and provincial child support services.
There are currently billions of dollars in unpaid child support payments in Canada, the vast majority of which are owed to women. With this bill, we are giving provinces, territories and individuals more tools to ensure that those obligations are being paid. The bill includes rigorous privacy protections to support this change. If this information were released to a court, it would have to be sealed and kept inaccessible to the public.
The bill's fourth priority is increasing access to justice and improving efficiency. Bill C-78 will provide parents with more options to resolve family law disputes. While the courts may be the best route for some families, others may benefit from out-of-court dispute resolution processes as a lower-conflict, more expeditious and lower-cost option. These processes enable parents to play an active role in crafting their own agreements, which increases compliance and makes for better agreements that are uniquely adapted to each family's situation.
However, Bill C-78 does not make family dispute resolution mandatory. Situations of family violence or power imbalance can make some mediation or dispute resolution processes inappropriate. What Bill C-78 does is require that lawyers must now inform their clients of all their options, both in and out of court, so that families are sufficiently informed of all available options.
In conclusion, Bill C-78 includes a number of other important changes that I'm happy to discuss further, but for now I would like to thank all the members of the committee for the meaningful work that you will undertake in studying this bill and for the ongoing dedication to making Canada's laws as strong as they can be.
Through Bill C-78, we have an important opportunity to make a real difference in the lives of Canadian children and families. Separation and divorce are among life's most challenging events, and I am proud that Bill C-78 proposes significant ways to make these processes a bit easier for all involved.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
