The Family Maintenance Act, 1997

The Family Maintenance Act, 1997 provides maintenance obligations for spouses, including common law and same sex spouses, and children. This Act adopts the Federal Child Support Guidelines which include tables for calculating child support and determining income.

The Act states that every parent is required to provide maintenance for his or her children and:

• establishes a presumption that child maintenance is to be ordered in accordance with the child support guidelines;
• provides that maintenance continues to be payable past a child's 18th birthday if the child is unable to support himself or herself because of illness or disability or because the child is pursuing reasonable education;
• establishes rules for determining when a person may be ordered to pay maintenance for his or her spouse; and
• provides that child support orders have priority over spousal support orders.