Minister of Justice, subsidized family mediation is not doing well. This family mediation program allows couples in the context of separation to receive the free services of an accredited mediator for a certain number of hours.
Our observation is overwhelming: family mediators are not interested in the practice of family mediation in general. More specifically, they leave the free mediation system.
The causes of this disaffection are numerous. While mediation is free for families, government-paid mediator fees have not been increased or indexed since 2012. At the same time, the level of difficulty of mediation cases has increased significantly.
Currently, income from family mediation does not allow family mediators to ensure their basic subsistence.
New mediators can even less cover the costs of supervision, training and specialization required to develop adequately and sustainably in this practice.
Faced with the absence of a government will to regularize the situation, the Regrouping of facilitators of parenting sessions after the breakup has decided to suspend the free sessions scheduled until 1er September 2023. About 1100 parents will be affected by the suspension of these sessions.
The Association of Family Mediators of Quebec (AMFQ) also recommends that its members no longer accept mediation under the free program, but rather bill their own fees and not leave the practice. It is reluctantly, and because there is no other option, that accredited mediators come to this solution of last resort, knowing that it will have an impact on low-income families.
Mr. Minister, we are professionals specialized in dialogue and the search for satisfactory solutions for both parties. We occupy an essential place in a justice that we want to be more accessible and more oriented towards mediation than litigation.
Unfortunately, mediators no longer have the economic means to wait. It is urgent to take action.
* Co-signatories, from the Group of Parenting Session Facilitators: Lorraine Filion, Shirley Kennedy, Marie-Hélène Lecompte