Section 7 Expenses in Canada: What Counts as Special or Extraordinary

Section 7 expenses in Canada are the costs a court can add on top of regular child support under section 7 of the Federal Child Support Guidelines: child care, the child's share of health and dental premiums, uninsured health costs, school and special programs, post-secondary education, and extracurricular activities. Each one has to be necessary for the child and reasonable for the family's budget, and parents usually share the net cost (after subsidies and tax credits) in proportion to their incomes. Only two of the six categories, school programs and activities, also have to clear the "extraordinary" bar, and that word is where most of the arguments happen.

First, check that section 7 applies to you

The Federal Guidelines cover divorcing parents unless both of you live in a designated province. According to Justice Canada, there are three: Manitoba, New Brunswick and Quebec.

Quebec is the real outlier. A Quebec family law firm describes its system as three categories of its own: child care, post-secondary costs and frais particuliers (special expenses tied to the child's particular situation). They're shared by each parent's portion of combined disposable income rather than the federal income figure. Everything below is about the federal rule and the provincial guidelines that copy it. CoParentSplit was built by a Montreal parent who is not a lawyer, so read this as a map of the statute, not advice on your file.

The six categories, and which ones must be "extraordinary"

Quoted wording is from section 7(1).

Many summaries skip that last column. Daycare for a working parent, a child's insurance premiums, braces and tuition don't have to be unusual or large. They only need to pass the general test. Hockey, dance, private tutoring and special school programs have to pass the general test and be extraordinary.

The $100 in paragraph (c) is also misread. The threshold applies to what's left after insurance pays, counted over the year: that uninsured amount has to reach at least $100.

The two tests every expense faces

Test 1: necessary and reasonable (all six categories). The court looks at whether the expense is necessary for the child's best interests, and whether it's reasonable given both parents' means, the child's means, and how the family spent money before the separation. An activity the child was already doing before the split may be easier to justify than one that starts afterwards.

Test 2: extraordinary (school and activities only). Section 7(1.1) gives two ways in:

1. The cost is more than the parent asking for the contribution can reasonably cover, counting their own income plus the table support they receive.
2. If that doesn't apply, the court weighs that parent's income including table support, the nature and number of programs and activities, the child's special needs and talents, the overall cost, and anything similar.

So the same activity fee can be extraordinary for one family and ordinary for another. Lerners LLP, an Ontario firm, puts it this way: the higher the expense, the more likely it is to count, and a cost that's reasonable for an affluent family can be excessive for one of modest means.

Ontario judges have gone both ways on competitive sports, according to a summary by Lam Family Law. In Thomas-Bakker v. Bakker (2018) the claim failed because cheaper recreational leagues were available. In Meszen v. Meszen (2021) the court capped the contribution at $200 a month instead of the $375 claimed. Those are secondary summaries, not the judgments themselves, but the pattern is clear: an expense can qualify in principle and still be trimmed.

How section 7 expenses are shared

The rule in section 7(2): subtract any contribution from the child, then split what's left in proportion to your incomes. Section 7(3) adds that the court must account for subsidies, benefits and tax deductions or credits tied to the expense, including ones you're eligible for but haven't claimed. In practice you split the net cost, not the invoice. Parents can agree on something else, as Nova Scotia's government family law site points out, but proportional is the default.

Justice Canada's worked example uses two parents: Robert earns $80,000 and Dan earns $75,000, for a combined $155,000. Their child's figure skating costs about $12,000 a year. Robert's share is $80,000 ÷ $155,000 × $12,000 = $6,193.55 a year, or $516.13 a month. On top of his table amount that gives $765 + $516.13 = $1,281.13 a month.

That example leaves out net costing. Take the same two incomes and the Nova Scotia site's illustration of daycare: a $10,000 bill with a $1,000 tax benefit.

If the parents split the invoice instead, the higher earner would pay $80,000 ÷ $155,000 × $10,000 = $5,161.29, which is $5,161.29 − $4,645.16 = $516.13 more than the rule calls for. A 50/50 split of the net cost gives $9,000 ÷ 2 = $4,500 each. The incomes are close, so the gap is small ($4,645.16 − $4,500 = $145.16), but it grows as the incomes move apart.

The $1,000 is an illustration, not a tax rate. The real figure depends on who can claim the tax benefit. Child care is a deduction (line 21400), and the CRA's general rule is that within a household the person with the lower net income must claim it, so a new partner's income can change the answer. Work out who gets the benefit before you agree on the net cost. If you want to test your own numbers, the free expense split calculator handles proportional splits. The incomes that go into the ratio are the same ones used for table support, explained in our post on how child support income is calculated in Canada.

Do you have to ask before signing the kids up?

The statute doesn't require the other parent's consent. The case law makes asking a very good idea anyway. In Khan v. Khan, 2024 ONSC 4045, an Ontario court said it can decline to order a contribution even when an expense qualifies under section 7, and treated the failure to consult the other parent beforehand as relevant (as summarized by the Ontario firm Devry Smith Frank). Lerners says parents should ideally discuss significant section 7 expenses first, but that prior agreement isn't always required, for example when an expense is clearly necessary.

Our recommendation: for anything under paragraphs (d) or (f), send the cost, the net figure and the proposed split in writing before you pay, and keep the reply. Activities are where this goes wrong most often; our post on extracurricular costs after divorce covers how to raise them.

What to keep for every special expense

When the BC Family Maintenance Agency collects a section 7 expense against receipts, it asks the payor to pay within 30 days of processing the receipt, and each receipt has to show:

• who was paid
• the date
• the amount
• the activity or item
• who paid it, where relevant

That list is a good minimum anywhere in Canada. For a section 7 claim, add four notes of your own:

• which paragraph it falls under, (a) to (f)
• any subsidy, benefit or tax credit linked to it, and who can claim it
• any contribution from the child
• when you asked the other parent, and what they said

If you log each expense the day you pay it, with the net amount and these notes, you'll have a case file ready if you ever go to mediation or court. CoParentSplit lets you set a different split ratio for each category (daycare at your income ratio, school supplies at whatever you've agreed) and attach the receipt photo. The free tier covers up to 10 expenses a month for one child with no card required.

Frequently asked questions

Can section 7 amounts be a fixed monthly sum instead of reimbursing receipts? Yes. Section 7(1) allows the amount of an expense to be estimated, and the BC Family Maintenance Agency collects section 7 amounts either as fixed monthly sums or against receipts. A fixed sum is simpler to collect; receipts track what was actually spent.

Do section 7 rules apply if we were never married? The Federal Guidelines govern divorces. Parents who never married, and married parents who separated without applying for divorce, fall under their province's or territory's guidelines instead. Justice Canada says most of those closely resemble the federal rules, except Quebec's, but notes there may be differences, so read your own province's version before relying on section 7.

Which guidelines apply if my ex and I live in different provinces? If you're divorcing, the Federal Guidelines. Manitoba, New Brunswick and Quebec have their own guidelines, but in divorce cases Justice Canada says those apply only when both parents live in that province. So if one divorcing parent lives in Quebec and the other in Ontario, the federal rules govern. If you never married, which province's rules apply when you live apart is a question for a lawyer.

Start with the category split and receipts on the free plan, and see what Premium adds for both parents on the CoParentSplit expense tracker page.