More parents and guardians will have help seeking child support payments to improve the standard of living for their children with recent amendments to the Interjurisdictional Support Orders Act (ISO).

These changes came into effect on March 1, 2024, and bring into force statutory amendments to ISO made by Bill 8 – 2022, Attorney General Statutes (Hague Convention on Child and Family Support) Amendment Act, 2022 (Bill 8), and changes made to the Interjurisdictional Support Orders Regulation in B.C. Reg 213/2023. The changes are required to implement the 2007 Hague Child Support Convention in British Columbia.

Implementation of the Hague Child Support Convention will benefit people in British Columbia in several ways. It increases the number of jurisdictions that B.C. can co-operate with for cross-border child support matters and makes it easier to set, change and collect child support payments. It will also streamline and standardize the processing of international child support documents and make it easier for parents and guardians to navigate the system.

Countries that have signed the convention designate central authorities to work with other countries to facilitate document processing and support funds collection and transfer. The ISO currently operates similarly to the convention for matters in which people live in different Canadian provinces or territories, or some other countries, and therefore only minor changes to the act are needed to accommodate convention matters.

Learn More:

To learn more about Bill 8 – 2022, Attorney General Statutes (Hague Convention on Child and Family Support) Amendment Act, 2022, visit: https://www.bclaws.gov.bc.ca/civix/document/id/bills/billsprevious/3rd42nd:gov08-3

To learn more about the Hague Convention on Child and Family Support, visit: https://www.hcch.net/en/instruments/conventions/specialised-sections/child-support