Canadian Family Justice Fund: Family Justice Activities component

Overview

The Department of Justice supports the provinces and territories develop and maintain family justice services. The Canadian Family Justice Fund provides financial assistance for programs/services that support the needs of families experiencing separation and divorce.

Who is eligible?

Any of the following may be eligible for a contribution for projects/activities under the Family Justice Activities component:

• provincial and territorial government departments
• agencies or other organizations designated by provincial and territorial governments to be responsible for child support, the enforcement of support orders and agreements and parenting arrangement programs and services.

An activity chart with examples has been designed to assist the provinces and territories identify the type of activities/projects eligible under the Fund. This document will be provided upon request as an appendix to the Application Form.

Fund Priorities

The Canadian Family Justice Fund has been designed to address five priorities. Under the Family Justice Activities component all five priorities must be addressed in the workplan.

Fostering Federal Provincial and Territorial Collaboration:

This priority supports work that encourages collaboration amongst provincial, and territorial and federal governments to make improvements to the Canadian family justice system. This work includes: participation on cross-jurisdictional initiatives, such as work on inter-jurisdictional support and parenting issues, enforcement issues, participation on FPT sub-committees and working groups. This priority also includes work on coordination of family justice activities and implementation of new family law legislation.

Supporting Well-being of Family Members:

This priority includes support for programs and services that help support the overall well-being of family members engaging with the family justice system. This includes programs and services that help promote:

• The emotional well-being of family members, for example so that parents understand the importance of focusing on their children's best interests in parenting matters (e.g. parent education programs);
• The economic well-being of family members (e.g. maintenance enforcement programs, PLEI on finances after separation). This contributes to poverty reduction;
• The physical well-being of family members, in particular in cases of family violence (e.g. supervised access, services to help navigate the family justice system).

Reaching Diverse and Underserved Population:

This priority supports innovation and expansion of programs, services and information to extend the reach of the delivery of these programs, including to meet the needs of diverse and underserved populations such as: Indigenous populations, newcomers to Canada, Official Language minorities, individuals whose primary language is neither English nor French, and rural and northern populations.

Supporting Alternatives to Court:

This priority supports programs and services that support alternatives to court, reduce the need for involvement of courts in family law matters, including the need for courts to adjudicate contested family law matters. This priority would include mechanisms such as: triage models for services, conciliation, mediation, services for the administrative establishment or recalculation of child support, or technological innovations that narrow the issues that need to be determined.

Improving and Streamlining Family Justice System Links/Processes:

This priority supports the simplification of family court processes, information sharing between courts and family justice services, improved coordination with other parts of the justice system (e.g. criminal justice system). It also supports linkages between FPT governments to improve family justice processes and improvements to inter-jurisdictional processes.

Terms and Conditions

The Terms and Conditions provide important information on the Canadian Family Justice Fund and eligibility criteria you will need to know before completing your application for funding.

How to Apply for Funding

To apply for funding, contact the Department of Justice Canada's Programs Branch.

Canada Family Justice Fund
Programs Branch, Department of Justice Canada
284 Wellington
Ottawa ON K1A 0H8
pb-dgp@justice.gc.ca

Additional Funding

Provincial and Territorial governments are eligible for funding under the Projects component.