What is the current state of the law on maintenance and support under s. 15 of the Divorce Act, 1985?

While it is clear that s. 15 of the Divorce Act, 1985 gives the trial judge discretionary powers to provide for the maintenance and support of a spouse and/or child of the marriage, it is not so clear as to the exact approach the trial judge should follow. It appears that much of the former case-law in this field is now questionable because of what may be called the new support philosophy of basing maintenance on need and requiring each spouse, where possible, to work towards economic self-sufficiency as soon as possible. This approach was enunciated by Madam Justice Wilson in Pelech v. Pelech, supra, where she states at p. 677: Absent some causal connection between the changed circumstances and the marriage, it seems to me that parties who have declared their relationship at an end should be taken at their word. They made the decision to marry and they made the decision to terminate their marriage. Their decisions should be respected. They should thereafter be free to make new lives for themselves without an ongoing contingent liability for future misfortunes which may befall the other.

The foregoing quotation from Madam Justice Wilson is similar to the statement of Mr. Justice Chouinard in Messier v. Delage (1983), 1983 CanLII 31 (SCC), 2 D.L.R. (4th) 1, [1983] 2 S.C.R. 401, 50 N.R. 16, which was made prior to the revisions of the Divorce Act in 1985. He states at p. 14: That does not mean that the obligation of support between ex-spouses should continue indefinitely when the marriage bond is dissolved, or that one spouse can continue to be a drag on the other indefinitely or acquire a lifetime pension as a result of the marriage, or to luxuriate in idleness at the expense of the other, to use the expressions one finds in some discussions of the subject. It also does not mean that a divorced person cannot remarry, or that his new obligations or new advantages as the case may be will not be taken into consideration.