“The [Family Responsibility and Support Arrears Enforcement Act, 1996,] provides for the enforcement of support orders using means beyond those available to enforce orders for the payment of money in purely civil proceedings and gives support orders priority over such orders. Section 1(1) of the Act defines a support order as follows:
1 (1) In this Act,
“support order” means a provision in an order made in or outside Ontario and enforceable in Ontario for the payment of money as support or maintenance, and includes a provision for,
…
(g) interest or the payment of legal fees or other expenses arising in relation to support or maintenance,
On behalf of Ms. Rutledge, Ms. Prescott makes a procedural argument that I believe should be dealt with before turning to the substantive arguments. She submits that Mr. Taillefer should not be allowed to raise the applicability of the Act because he never sought that relief in any notice of motion.
I am unable to accept this argument. While it is true that neither the contempt nor the breach motion sought an order that costs be enforced as support, they did seek costs. Where costs clearly do relate to support, there is no requirement of which I am aware, nor was I referred to any by counsel for Ms. Rutledge, that the party to whom costs are awarded must plead the Act in order to claim the benefit of it.”