Revenu Québec – Simplifying Procedures

The complaint

The citizen complained about Revenu Québec’s refusal to process his application to cease child support payments.

Since 1999, the citizen had been paying child support to his ex-wife for their son. The payments were deducted from his wages by the collection service of Revenu Québec. When their son became financially independent at age 21, his mother, his father and he agreed to end the child support. They completed the appropriate form received from Revenu Québec. However, Revenu Québec subsequently refused to process the application.

The investigation

• The child and his parents confirmed their shared position on the cessation of child support.
• The case met all the conditions for being processed under the terms of a judgment from the Superior Court authorizing Revenu Québec to cease collection of child support payments.
• Revenu Québec informed the Québec Ombudsman that it was no longer applying the principles of the judgment in question and that it was therefore not processing the forms that it had sent out.
• Extra legal clarifications were required for Revenu Québec to implement a definitive mechanism.

The Québec Ombudsman’s conclusions

Given that Revenu Québec had sent out the form in question and the organization has no processing procedure to replace the one that is suspended, the Québec Ombudsman recommended that pending cases similar to that of the citizen be treated under the terms of the judgment from the Superior Court until a permanent mechanism is put in place.

Revenu Québec accepted to follow through with the Québec Ombudsman’s recommendation. The citizen’s case and over 300 others have been rectified.