What is the Ontario government doing to collect unpaid support?
MPP Sandra Pupatello, the new Minister for Community and Social Services, is scheduled to announce today (February 6, 2004) her plan to crack down on deadbeat parents who do not pay their support. The Ministry for Community and Social Services operates the Family Responsibility Office (FRO), whose mandate is to ensure that support payments flow properly from payors (people who make the support payments) to recipients (people who receive the support payments.) The Family Responsibility Office receives every support order made by a court in Ontario and enforces the amounts owed under the order. It also enforces private written agreements that include child or spousal support terms. Private written agreements can include separation agreements, other domestic contracts and paternity agreements. These types of agreements must first be filed with the Ontario Court of Justice, the Superior Court of Justice (Family Court), or their predecessor courts before they can be enforced by the FRO. The
