“Since Jade is living away from home eight months each year, I find the table amount of child support to be inappropriate for her during the time she lives away from home (subsection 3(2) of the child support guidelines). The father should not have to both contribute towards Jade’s post-secondary school costs and pay the full table amount of child support, while she is away at school. In Merritt v. Merritt(1999), 88 A.C.W.S. (3d) 424, 98 O.T.C. 321, [1999] O.J. No. 1732, 1999 CarswellOnt 1471 (Ont. Fam. Ct.), the court said at paragraph [73]:
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[73] Where, however, a child is residing in another residence for the bulk of the year, it seems inappropriate to apply tables that are not designed with that living arrangement in mind. Furthermore, the table approach assumes that the recipient parent discharges her obligation by being physically in the same household and providing the family home and other amenities for the child. Where a child is at college, this assumption does not hold true. It therefore seems more appropriate to calculate the actual costs of providing for the needs of the child in his other residence, factoring in a contribution toward the cost of maintaining the family home to return to on weekends and school breaks, where appropriate, and apportion that between the spouses on a Paras approach after considering the child’s own ability to contribute. |
I will order the table amount of child support while Jade is at home during the summer. During the other eight months, I will apportion her expenses between the parents, taking into consideration her contribution to these expenses. This is a common approach taken by the courts. See Park v. Thompson(2005), 77 O.R. (3d) 601, 197 O.A.C. 158, 252 D.L.R. (4th) 730, 13 R.F.L. (6th) 415, 2005 CanLII 14132 (ON CA), 2005 CanLII 14132, [2005] O.J. No. 1695, 2005 CarswellOnt 1632 (Ont. C.A.); Gagnier v. Gagnier, [2002] O.J. No. 2183, 2002 CarswellOnt 5056 (Ont. Fam. Ct.); Albert v. Albert, 2007 CanLII 29972 (ON SC), 2007 CanLII 29972, 40 R.F.L. (6th) 203, [2007] O.J. No. 2964, 2007 CarswellOnt 4863 (Ont. S.C.).”