The Maintenance Enforcement Program (MEP) is committed to preserving the privacy of its clients. To ensure that the confidentiality of both creditors and debtors is protected, the Maintenance Enforcement Act states, "Information received by the Director under this Act may be used only for the purpose of enforcing a maintenance order and is otherwise confidential." The Maintenance Enforcement Regulation allows very few exceptions to this general rule.

Only clients have the right to access the personal information about themselves in MEP’s files. This means that MEP cannot discuss a client’s file with the client’s spouse or partner, family member or other third party without a client's permission.

To ensure that their information is not released to someone who does not have a right to it, MEP will ask creditors and debtors to verify their identity before releasing information from their file. The client may be requested to provide a date of birth, Social Insurance Number, address, and telephone number. Specific account activity on the MEP Info Line or MEP Accounts Online can only be accessed with a personal identification number (PIN).

If you wish to allow someone other than your lawyer to contact MEP on your behalf, you will be required to provide us with their name (first and last) and their date of birth. When they contact us on your behalf, they will be required to provide your MEP file number, your date of birth and their date of birth. If at any time you want to remove their access to your file information, you will need to contact us immediately.

Creditors

Creditors may request and receive the following information from MEP:

• status of the account (including arrears and payments received by MEP)
• written statements showing payments as they become due and are paid out by MEP
• year-end statements
• enforcement actions in place (including a history of previous actions)
• status of the file (for example, whether it has been transferred to another jurisdiction for enforcement but not which jurisdiction it has been transferred to).

Creditors are not entitled to receive any personal information about the debtor, including the debtor’s address, phone number, financial information or employer. Creditors will not be provided with copies of files, any correspondence between the debtor and MEP, or details of conversations between MEP and the debtor.

Debtors

Debtors enjoy similar information privileges to creditors and are subject to similar restrictions. Debtors may request and receive the following information from MEP:

• status of the account (including arrears and payments)
• written statements showing payments as they become due and are received by MEP
• year-end statements
• enforcement actions in place (where providing this information will not jeopardize collection) and a history of previous actions
• verification that MEP has investigated the child’s place of residence or attendance at school to confirm eligibility for support. However, MEP cannot provide information about the child, including details of the child’s educational program, school or location.

Debtors are not entitled to receive from MEP any personal information about the creditor or children, including address, phone number, financial information or employer. Debtors will not be provided with copies of files, details of conversations between the creditor and MEP, or copies of any correspondence provided by the creditor to MEP.