Support order enforcement

The enforcement of child and spousal support orders in the Northwest Territories is conducted by the Maintenance Enforcement Program as set out in the Maintenance Orders Enforcement Act.

You can enroll with Maintenance Enforcement once you have a court order or agreement that clearly states the payment obligations. Even if the conditions of your support order/agreement are being fulfilled, you can still register - many people find it beneficial to have the program collect and track their payments for them. Once enrolled, you can use the online support payment tracker to verify the status of your support payments.

To enroll, complete and submit a registration kit to the Maintenance Enforcement Office along with a copy of your court order. (If you have an agreement, we require the original, signed copy or three certified copies.) Once your registration kit and documents are received, the enrollment process usually takes approximately four weeks.

If you want to obtain a support order or agreement, you should talk to a lawyer. The Maintenance Enforcement Program cannot assist you with obtaining or modifying support orders.

Once enrollment is complete, the debtor is required to send all payments to the Maintenance Enforcement Program instead of the creditor so that we can keep accurate and up-to-date payment records.

Payments can be made with cash, cheque, money order, debit card, credit card, through online banking, pre-authorized VISA, or pre-authorized debit. Once received, payments are recorded and forwarded to the creditor - typically on the same day - via direct deposit or mail. Recorded payments can then be reviewed online by both the creditor and debtor.

As the creditor, you should never accept direct payments from the debtor. If you do, enforcement of the support order may be terminated as the program will not have a record of that payment. When taking enforcement measures, we need to ensure we are enforcing payment of the correct amount.

As a debtor, if you are finding it difficult to make your support payments, you may want to consider talking to a lawyer about applying for a new court order or agreement to match your financial circumstances. The Maintenance Enforcement Program cannot assist with applying for a new support order, or make changes to an existing order. The MEP must continue to enforce the existing order until a new order is issued by the court.

If you have missed payments (arrears), then arrangements can be made to pay off a portion of the arrears each month in addition to the regular payment.

In the event that the debtor fails to fulfill the requirements of the support order, the Maintenance Enforcement Program can take action to collect payments. Enforcement actions are applied on a case-by-case basis depending on the debtor's payment history, financial situation, and arrears due; and could include:

• garnishment of federal payments due to the debtor (e.g. income tax returns or employment insurance payments);
• issuing wage attachments which intercept money owed to the debtor by their employer;
• garnishment/attachment of bank accounts;
• registering the maintenance order against the debtor's land or personal property so that it cannot be sold;
• withholding the debtor's passport or other federal licenses;
• suspension of the debtor's drivers license;
• taking the debtor to court; or
• asking a Judge to sentence the debtor to up to 90 days in jail.

As many debtors go to great lengths to hide or prevent collection of payments, the Maintenance Enforcement Program cannot guarantee the collection or regularity of payments.

As a creditor, you should always provide the program with up-to-date information about the debtor to help with the collection of payments.

A wage attachment is a legal document sent to the debtor's employer requiring the employer to redirect a portion of the debtor's salary to fulfill support obligations. As a debtor, your employer is required to provide you with a copy of any attachment issued against you. The attachment is confidential, and your employer cannot give out information, take disciplinary action, or dismiss you over support payments owing. You are entitled to an exemption of $600.00 a month, plus an additional $80.00 a month for each dependent child in your care. If you have questions about an attachment filed against you, you should contact Maintenance Enforcement.

If you have an interjurisdictional support order where the creditor or debtor lives in another province, territory, or country; the order can still be enforced provided that a reciprocal enforcement agreement exists between those two jurisdictions. If this is the case, the order is enforced by the reciprocating jurisdiction, and any collected payments will be forwarded to the Maintenance Enforcement Program on your behalf.

You might also be able to apply for an order or update an existing order in a reciprocating jurisdiction without having to travel there! The basic requirements are that you and the other party don't reside in the same jurisdiction and you were never divorced.