The Divorce Act Changes Explained: Part II

Canada is currently not a party to any international convention concerning the enforcement of family support. In Canada, the international recovery of family support or family maintenance is facilitated by “reciprocity arrangements”^Footnote13 between provinces or territories and other countries. Common law provinces and territories have established arrangements pursuant to their ISO legislation under which certain other countries have been designated as “reciprocating jurisdictions”^Footnote14, while in the province of Québec, these reciprocity arrangements have been established by designation pursuant to AREMO. Under the Divorce Act, further to former Bill C-78 amendments, foreign jurisdictions with which provinces and territories have reciprocity with respect to support matters are referred to as “designated jurisdictions”.^Footnote15

Practice Tips

• If you have a client that wishes to have a support order enforced in another country, you can consult provincial or territorial websites or the Department of Justice Canada website to determine whether their province/territory of residence has established a reciprocity arrangement with that country: https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/fl-df/enforce-execution/enforce-execut.html.
• If there is no reciprocity arrangement, the only way for most Canadians to have a support order enforced in another country is to hire a lawyer in that country and go to court.