“Section 17(1) of the Divorce Act, R.S.C., 1985, C.3, as amended, permits the court to vary a support order where there has been a change in circumstances. The jurisprudence is clear that courts are reluctant to interfere with support orders and will not do so unless the reasons disclose an error in principle or a significant misapprehension of the evidence, or unless the order is clearly wrong. Because of the fact-based and discretionary nature of such an order, judges are to be given considerable deference by appellate courts when such decisions are reviewed. Their discretion is to be exercised, however, in accordance with the four objectives set out in s. 17(7) – which are designed to reflect the principle that the economic consequences of marriage and of separation and divorce are to be equitably shared between the former spouses – namely that the variation order should:
a) recognize any economic advantages or disadvantages to the former spouse arising from the marriage or its breakdown;
b) apportion between the former spouses any financial consequences arising from the care of any child of the marriage over and above any obligation for the support of any child of the marriage;
c) relieve any economic hardship of the former spouses arising from the breakdown of the marriage; and
d) in so far as practicable, promote the economic self-sufficiency of each former spouse within a reasonable period of time.
See Hickey v. Hickey, 1999 CanLII 691 (SCC), [1999] 2 S.C.R. 518, at paras. 10-11.
Moreover, the change in circumstances must be material and not trivial or insignificant: Hickey, at paras. 14 and 20-22; Willick v. Willick, 1994 CanLII 28 (SCC), [1994] 3 S.C.R. 670. In Willick, at p. 688, Sopinka J. said:
In deciding whether the conditions for variation exist, it is common ground that the change must be a material change of circumstances. This means a change, such that, if known at the time, would likely have resulted in different terms. The corollary to this is that if the matter which is relied on as constituting a change was known at the relevant time it cannot be relied on as the basis for variation. [Emphasis added.]”