Blended families, blended incomes: second spouses and support obligations.

Child support payments can be a constant source of difficulty in family breakdown. But they can become even more of a problem when one (or both) of the former spouses adds a new spouse to the blended families. Take Ted, for example, who is divorced from Alice and paying child support, and has just married Carol (who happens to own a trendy cappuccino cafe). Can or must the courts include Carol's income with Ted's when assessing the proper amount of child support?

Provincial legislation (in Alberta) such as the Parentage and Maintenance Act (PMA), 1990, directs a court to order an amount of support "having regard to the financial resources of each of the child's parents." Sections 15 and 17 of the The Divorce Act, 1985 (Canada) identify the means, needs, and other circumstances of each spouse and of any child as factors the court is to consider when making an award of child support. The case law does not appear to distinguish in any material way between a second spouse who is a legally married spouse, or alternatively, a commonlaw spouse. There is case law that distinguishes between a more permanent relationship and one of fleeting duration, but this is a matter of common sense as much as anything else.

Interestingly, there are a number of recent cases addressing the issue of the income of a second spouse on child support that have emerged from the Maritime provinces of Newfoundland, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. This may be in part due to the harsher economic conditions in the…