Why were the Child Support Guidelines created?

The Government of Canada looked at child support problems for years and asked for ideas from families, lawyers, judges and court workers to try and make the law work better. The reasons that the federal Department of Justice gives for the new guidelines are

• to establish a fair system of support for children that takes into account the finances of both parents after divorce;
• to reduce conflict and tension by making calculation of child support simpler and more objective;
• to improve the efficiency of the legal process by giving courts and parents guidance about appropriate amounts and encouraging settlement without going to court; and
• to try and bring about some consistency in child support orders while still giving flexibility to families to meet their own circumstances.

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