What is the test for a change of circumstances?

To find a change of circumstances, the court must be satisfied that it has been presented with accurate and reliable evidence: see Muller v. Muller, 2015 BCSC 370 at para. 34. In this regard, the evidentiary matrix before me is replete with contradictory and unclear evidence, as well as serious issues of credibility regarding the father’s actual earnings and his income earning potential. Nevertheless, I find that after the father lost his custody case in the summer of 2010 and his children moved with their mother to Ohio, the father, to use his words, “felt so emotionally exhausted and devastated that all I wanted was simply a place to live, food to eat and a few dollars to spend." The affidavit evidence of the father and G.S. attest to the significant emotional distress experienced by the father during this time.

While I have found that the loss of custody over the Children and their relocation to Ohio had a significant impact on the father’s emotional state and impaired his income earning capacity for a period of time, the evidence does not establish that the father’s mental distress continued indefinitely. Nor am I persuaded that these circumstances had a substantial impact on the father’s ability to earn an income beyond a limited period of time after the trial in 2010: see Tarbujaru v. Tarbujaru, 2016 BCCA 214 at para. 24.