Impact of Adding Revenue Canada Databases Under FOAEA—Part 1 Tracing For Locating Persons
Final Report
2004-FCY-10E
3.0 DESCRIPTION OF THE MAINTENANCE TRACING PROCESS
Four organizations are involved in the maintenance tracing process in British Columbia in situations where payors and/or employers of payors cannot be located. These are briefly described below:
- The B.C. Family Maintenance Enforcement Program (FMEP)—is responsible under the Family Maintenance and Enforcement Act for monitoring and enforcing all the maintenance and enforcement orders filed with the program. This may involve calculating, receiving, recording and forwarding payments to the person receiving maintenance (the recipient), or taking action, when necessary, to ensure that the person required to make payments (the payor) makes the required maintenance payments.
- Family Search Program (FAMS)—B.C. Family Justice Programs Division—conducts searches, where necessary, to find a payor, an employer location and payor sources of income in order to obtain, change or enforce custody, access, guardianship or maintenance orders or agreements. The Family Justice Division also manages the Reciprocals Program, which ensures the smooth flow of maintenance orders and information between the British Columbia Courts, FMEP and reciprocating jurisdictions in order to obtain, confirm or change maintenance orders or agreements.
- Family Orders and Agreement Enforcement Assistance Unit of the Department of Justice Canada (FOAEA Unit)—provides additional data to FMEP to assist in the location of payors and employers from the main source departments (below) in response to a trace request from FAMS.
- Federal Data Source Departments: Human Resources Development Canada (HRDC) and Canada Customs and Revenue Agency (CCRA) provide payor residential address and employer data to the FOAEA Unit from a range of databases.
If a maintenance recipient enrols in FMEP and the payor or employer cannot be located, an initial search is made by FMEP staff using public or other data sources. If the search results are negative, a trace request is made to FAMS, which applies additional trace resources and techniques. If no accurate trace data is found, FAMS sends a trace request to the FOAEA Unit at the Department of Justice Canada, which in turn accesses available data from both HRDC and CCRA. This data is sent back to FMEP via FAMS for review and application. Figure 1 describes the federal/provincial tracing process.
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