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The Act and its application
Since the coming into force of the Act to facilitate the payment of support, a person required to pay support (the debtor) must, unless exempted by a court, pay the amount to Québec’s Minister of Revenue, who will then remit it to the person entitled to receive support (the creditor).
When a debtor moves to a place that is not designated in the Act respecting reciprocal enforcement of maintenance orders, the Ministère du Revenu du Québec (MRQ) will take action to seize any property the debtor has in Québec. If this is not possible, the creditor may contact a lawyer to assess the possibility of having the Québec judgment recognized and executed abroad. In this case, the creditor will have to pay for any judicial proceedings.
Creditor living in Québec and debtor living outside Québec
When the debtor settles outside Québec, but in a jurisdiction covered by the Act respecting reciprocal enforcement of maintenance orders, the creditor does not need to take any action. The support payments required under a court judgment will continue to be paid by the Ministère du Revenu du Québec (MRQ), since the Ministère de la Justice du Québec (MJQ), working with the MRQ, will complete all the necessary formalities and take all the necessary steps to ensure that the judgment is exercised in the jurisdiction where the debtor lives. When the execution of a Québec judgment is transferred to the authorities of another jurisdiction, the laws in force in that jurisdiction will apply.
Example: Sonia and Richard, who live in Québec, have two children. They separate, and the Superior Court orders Richard, the debtor, to make support payments to Sonia, the creditor, to support the couple’s children. A few months later, Richard moves to Ontario, but without leaving an address.
The MRQ, after attempting to locate Richard using its own resources or the information provided by Sonia, asks the MJQ to forward the file to the relevant administrative authority in Ontario, to ensure that the judgment of the Québec Superior Court is sent to the clerk’s office of an Ontario court for execution. Once this has been done, the payments made by Richard to the authorities in Ontario will be forwarded to the MRQ, which will then remit them to Sonia to support her children in Québec.
It is important to note that an extra-provincial judgment, in other words a judgment that will be enforced in a province, territory or state that is not where the creditor lives must, when obtained by a creditor living in Québec, be approved with or without amendment by a court in the jurisdiction where the debtor lives.
Creditor living outside Québec and debtor living in Québec
The Act respecting reciprocal enforcement of maintenance orders also allows a creditor living outside Québec to have a judgment concerning support payments, made in a Canadian province or territory or one of the ten US states listed, to have the judgment enforced in Québec.
Example: John and Carmen have a child together. A court in Florida orders Carmen to make support payments for the child. John, the creditor, lives in Florida, and Carmen, the debtor, lives in Québec, but fails to make regular payments.
At the request of the authorities in Florida, the MJQ files the US judgment concerning John and Carmen in the clerk’s office of the Québec Superior Court. The MRQ then takes steps to collect the payments from Carmen, and sends the amounts to the authorities in Florida for payment to John to help him support their child.
It is important to note that an extra-provincial judgment, in other words a judgment obtained by a creditor living in a province or territory other than Québec or a state mentioned in the Act, must be approved with or without amendment by the Québec court having jurisdiction in the place where the debtor lives.
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