“The importance of timely and full financial disclosure by a parent paying child support was emphasized by the Supreme Court of Canada in Colucci v. Colucci, 2021 SCC 24:
[49] The pivotal role of disclosure comes as no surprise since the premise underlying the Guidelines “is that the support obligation itself should fluctuate with the payor parent’s income” (D.B.S., at para. 45). The structure of the Guidelines thus creates an informational asymmetry between the parties. In a system that ties support to payor income, it is the payor who knows and controls the information needed to calculate the appropriate amount of support. The recipient does not have access to this information, except to the extent that the payor chooses or is made to share it. It would thus be illogical, unfair and contrary to the child’s best interests to make the recipient solely responsible for policing the payor’s ongoing compliance with their support obligation.
[50] This is why frank disclosure of income information by the payor lies at the foundation of the child support regime. In Roberts v. Roberts, 2015 ONCA 450, 65 R.F.L. (7th) 6, the Court of Appeal described the duty to disclose financial information as “[t]he most basic obligation in family law” (para. 11). A payor’s failure to make timely, proactive and full disclosure undermines the policies underlying the family law regime and “the processes that have been carefully designed to achieve those policy goals” (Leitch v. Novac, 2020 ONCA 257, 150 O.R. (3d) 587, at para. 44). Without proper disclosure, the system simply cannot function and the objective of establishing a fair standard of support for children that ensures they benefit from the means of both parents will be out of reach (Michel, at para. 32, per Brown J.; Brear, at para. 19, per Pentelechuk J.A.).
[51] Full and frank disclosure is also a precondition to good faith negotiation. Without it, the parties cannot stand on the equal footing required to make informed decisions and resolve child support disputes outside of court. Promoting proactive payor disclosure thus advances the objectives — found in s. 1 of the Guidelines — of reducing conflict between the parties and encouraging settlement.
[52] In line with these realities, courts have increasingly recognized that the payor’s duty to disclose income information is a corollary of the legal obligation to pay support commensurate with income (Brear, at paras. 19 and 69, per Pentelechuk J.A.; Roseberry v. Roseberry, 2015 ABQB 75, 13 Alta. L.R. (6th) 215, at para. 63; Cunningham v. Seveny, 2017 ABCA 4, 88 R.F.L. (7th) 1, at paras. 21 and 26). As explained by Brown J., speaking for the full Court in Michel, payor parents “are subject to a duty of full and honest disclosure — a duty comparable to that arising in matrimonial negotiations” (para. 33, referencing Rick v. Brandsema, 2009 SCC 10, [2009] 1 S.C.R. 295, at paras. 47-49). Courts and legislatures have also implemented various mechanisms to incentivize and even require regular ongoing disclosure of updated income information by the payor, along with tools to move proceedings forward in the face of non-disclosure. Those mechanisms include imputing income to payors who have failed to make adequate disclosure, striking pleadings, drawing adverse inferences, and awarding costs. By encouraging timely disclosure, these tools reduce the likelihood that the recipient will be forced to apply to court multiple times to secure disclosure. [Emphasis added]”