Mr. Speaker, this amendment, proposed by the hon. member for the Reform Party, deals with the denial of schedule licences to debtors when the latter are in persistent arrears. When we read the definition of this expression, we see that this is about extreme cases where debtors have failed to make in full the payments required in respect of any three payment periods, usually three months, or who owe the child at least $3,000.
The bill is clear, and we agree with what the bill proposes to do. We agree because licence denials are explained in detail in interpretation section 62. So, licence means "a licence, a permit, a certificate or an authorization of any kind, and includes a passport in the meaning of section 2"; "schedule licence means a licence of a type or class set out in the schedule"; and "provincial enforcement service has the meaning assigned by section 2".
The resources available are clearly defined in this section of the bill. These are means of dealing with debtors who, despite every reasonable attempt to make them do so, will not make their payments to the custodial parent-the wife, in many cases-or to creditors who have a stake in the payment of support payments.
So when the province applies to the federal government, this is after it has made every attempt to force payments. In this case, the Reform proposal would extend the period to 50 days from the prescribed 30 days. So the bill is clear. It provides that a provincial government may ask the federal government to refuse the issue of, suspend or not renew a licence for these debtors, once the provincial government has made every attempt to enforce the support order, but to no avail. To no avail means that every possible measure has been taken by the province. And even if a debtor were to say he had not been contacted by the province, I believe there would be enough evidence to prove that such contacts were made and that the debtor failed to respond to a provincial request.
So I see no need for proposing such an amendment when we realize that the present period provided by the federal government is 30 days after notice was sent by the province to the debtor before an application for licence denial may be filed.
We all know that women are often penalized, when we consider that in 1990, 67 per cent of individuals who received support payments were women.
So we do not think we should support this kind of amendment to the bill. We know very well that huge amounts are often at stake when one is waiting for overdue support payments. For instance, a deadbeat parent is not someone who wakes up one morning thinking he is not going to pay support for a couple of months; we believe that these are people who do it repeatedly, not innocently, over a period of three payments, and that the amounts involved are evaluated at over $3,000. Therefore, the time frame is very realistic and we do not believe that this motion should go ahead.
I am in favour of payments being made as soon as possible, this is desirable. What the bill is proposing is very clear and promises that deadbeat parents be, once and for all, with their back to the wall, and that the government be able to act by way of a piece of legislation making it very clear how to quickly obtain payment of the amounts owed.
To think that Bill C-41 was introduced by the government to really improve the situation for children. This is exactly what we want. This was at our request, we want this bill to be enforceable and we want no more delays, no more wait for the parents owed support, who often must face such delays.
Unfortunately, too often they are women; as we know they hold part time jobs, their job situation is precarious, and often they are the ones who have to provide for their children. We know that more often than not support payments are well below what it takes to raise a child nowadays.
In any case, I believe we have the responsibility to take care of our children, and therefore it is the responsibility of the non custodial parent to make support payments, often to the detriment of the parent who has custody of the child.