# 2019-287 Careers, Pension benefits, Review of the terms of service offered to re-enrollees prior to May 2005, Terms of service

Case summary

F&R Date: 2020-03-25

The grievor, a re-enrollee, grieved the denial of an immediate, unreduced annuity upon completion of her terms of service (TOS). As redress, she requested that she be granted an immediate and unreduced annuity on or before the end of her current TOS.

The Initial Authority did not render a decision within the statutory time limit.

The Committee noted that pension benefits are determined in accordance with the provisions of the Canadian Forces Superannuation Act (CFSA) as enacted at the time the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) member retires from the Regular Force (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 Fixed period of service (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 to administer 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, the Director Canadian Forces Grievance Authority, found that the only long term TOS which could have been offered to the grievor in 2005, as a re-enrollee, was an FPS, and therefore the TOS offer had not been mismanaged. She found that at the end of the FPS, the grievor would not be eligible for an immediate unreduced annuity. 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.