Can support enforcement tools be used against a self-employed payor who has no traditional employer?

Yes, a payor being self-employed doesn't put them outside the reach of support enforcement, though it can change which tools are most effective. Since there's no employer to serve with a wage deduction order, the Family Responsibility Office generally relies more heavily on other measures, such as garnishing bank accounts, registering liens against property, reporting arrears to a credit bureau, and pursuing licence suspension, including federal licences in appropriate cases. These tools don't depend on a traditional employment relationship at all.

Self-employed payors can present practical challenges for enforcement because income may be less predictable or harder to verify than a straightforward paycheque, which is sometimes seen, fairly or not, as an opportunity to under-report income or delay payment. This doesn't reduce the underlying obligation, and courts and FRO have mechanisms to look at a self-employed payor's actual financial circumstances rather than simply accepting a low reported income at face value. A recipient dealing with a self-employed payor who is falling behind should get legal advice on which enforcement tools are likely to be most effective given the payor's specific business and financial situation.