# 2019-153 Careers, Canadian Forces Superannuation Act

Canadian Forces Superannuation Act (CFSA)

Case summary

F&R Date: 2019-10-31

The grievor, who is a re-enrollee, accepted a Fixed Period of Service (FPS) in 2005 that would bring her to 20 combined years of Regular Force (Reg F) service. Based on the established practice at the time, the grievor and her chain of command understood that those Terms of Service (TOS) would render her eligible to receive an immediate, unreduced annuity if she retired upon completing that FPS. In 2018, the grievor was informed that, given the changes to pension legislation that took effect on 1 March 2007, she now had to serve 9,131 days (25 years) of paid service to be so entitled. As redress, the grievor asked that her eligibility upon completing her FPS be restored.

The Initial Authority determined that the grievance was non-receivable as its object was the grievor's eligibility to a pension in accordance with the Canadian Forces Superannuation Act (CFSA) and she must seek remedy through the mechanism provided under that Act. The Chief of the Defence Staff accepted the grievance, finding that the decision being grieved was the administration of the grievor's TOS.

The Committee noted that pension benefits are determined in accordance with the provisions of the CFSA as enacted at the time the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) member retires from the Reg F. The Committee found that the grievor was not eligible to an immediate, unreduced annuity upon completing 20 combined years of Reg F service, as her circumstances did not meet either the general provisions of the CFSA or the grandfathering provisions set out in the amended Canadian Forces Superannuation Regulations (CFSR), which also came into effect on 1 March 2007.

The Committee reviewed the TOS policy, nothing that, since the early 1990s, re-enrolled non-commissioned members and officers were respectively offered successive FPS or Short Engagements, to bring them to 20 combined years of Reg F service. This practice was instituted at a time when the CAF were undergoing a Force Reduction Program and aimed at ensuring re-enrollees competed for service beyond 20 years like all other CAF members. By virtue of a provision in the previous CFSA, if the Service Pension Board deemed the reason for retirement to be for economy and efficiency, which it did for re-enrollees retiring upon 20 combined years of service, the CAF member was eligible to an immediate, unreduced annuity. This was no longer possible for releases that took effect on or after 1 March 2007 with the enactment of the amended CFSA.

The Committee also found that, unknown to those responsible for the administration of TOS, the grandfathering provisions set out in the amended CFSR provided that CAF members with previous Reg F service must have accrued 10 years of qualifying service as of 1 March 2007 be eligible for grandfathering. As a result, until the new CAF TOS structure came in effect on 1 May 2005, a number of re-enrollees, like the grievor, continued to be offered FPS under the premise they would be entitled to an immediate, unreduced annuity upon completing their FPS, but were informed to the contrary many years later.

The Committee recommended that the Final Authority (FA) afford redress by offering additional TOS that will allow the grievor to accrue 9,131 days of paid service so she may qualify for an immediate unreduced annuity.

FA decision summary

The FA found that the only long term TOS that could be offered to the grievor in 2005, as a re-enrollee, was a FPS, and therefore the TOS offer had not been mismanaged. He found that at the end of the FPS, the grievor was not eligible for an immediate unreduced annuity. With regard to the grievor's most recent TOS, the FA noted that it was never the intent of pension reform to deny members an immediate unreduced annuity by offering them long term TOS, which fell just short of eligibility. The FA found that the only appropriate remedy for the grievor was to offer TOS which would permit service until reaching 9,131 days and noted that such a Continuous Engagement was offered but that the grievor was subsequently medically released.

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