Member of Calgary's Hart family on list of 96 Alberta delinquent family support debtors
Nearly a third of Alberta’s family support delinquents call Calgary home — including one from a prominent city family.
Smith Hart, the eldest son of professional wrestling promoter and trainer Stu Hart, is among 96 names on an Alberta Justice website who owe a combined $6.6 million in court-ordered Maintenance Enforcement Program (MEP) payments to spouses and children — 29 of whom allegedly live in the Calgary area.
Hart, who at press time hadn’t responded to messages seeking comment, is listed on the website as a booker for Great North Wrestling Company, residing at the address of a former gym on 7 St. S.E. in the East Village.
Hart’s Facebook page states he’s currently living north of Toronto, in the city of Barrie, Ont.
Hart’s Wikipedia page says he currently serves on the board of directors for Victory Commonwealth Wrestling, a professional wrestling promotion based in Toronto.
Only people who have defaulted on their payments for more than six months and can’t be found through extensive employment searches and motor vehicle registrations, or have an arrest warrant requested by MEP, are listed online.
The list’s 93 men and 3 women, as of October 2015, owe a rough average of $69,500 each.
The government lists them online, including photos and physical descriptions,
“Child, spousal and partner support is a critical responsibility,” said Alberta Justice Minister Kathleen Ganley.
“This web page is a useful tool we use to track down the hardest to find debtors in the MEP. It helps Albertans obtain the court-ordered funds to support their family’s well-being.”
The “help us find” portion of the website is a “last resort tool” that’s proven to work, says the government.
When the number of debtors spiked to 145 people in 2009, Albertans helped locate 76 people on the list. In 2014, they helped find 19 people.
The government acknowledges “potential privacy concerns” on the page, but says the profiles are reviewed on a case-by-case basis by MEP investigators before any information is posted online.
Aside from the 29 debtors from Calgary, 26 are from the Edmonton region. The youngest person listed is 31 while the oldest is 70.
The debtors are largely men working in the trades, with former employers in construction, plumbing, carpentry, transportation or oilfield-related work. The list also includes people who have worked as cooks, IT systems analysts, car dealers and even one former real estate agent for Century 21.
Alberta and Ontario are currently the only Canadian provinces that list debtor information online in order to ask for tips, but the “help us find” tool is commonly used by versions of the MEP in several jurisdictions in the Unites States.
The names, photos and profiles are at https://justice.alberta.ca/programs_services/mep/Pages/helpUsFindlistDebtors.aspx
The MEP tip line is 780-401-8477 or toll free in Alberta at 310-0000.
- With files from Matt Dykstra
