Case information

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Case summaries are prepared by the Office of the Registrar of the Supreme Court of Canada (Law Branch). Please note that summaries are not provided to the Judges of the Court. They are placed on the Court file and website for information purposes only.

First Application

Pensions — Surplus — Public service pensions — Government employer either declaring contribution holiday or directing surplus funds to Consolidated Revenue Fund — Are all funds in the Consolidated Revenue Fund, despite their source or purpose, public monies — Are there assets in the Superannuation Account (the “SA”) established by the Public Service Superannuation Act (the “PSSA”) — Does a Government employer owe a fiduciary duty to plan members in respect of the contributions they are statutorily required to make for pension purposes in circumstances where: (i) the government is not subject to pension oversight legislation; (ii) the matter of pensions is not subject to collective bargaining; and, (iii) the use of surplus causes the employees’ contribution rates to significantly increase — Should a constructive trust be ordered where a Government employer enriches itself (in paying down its debt) by using surplus to the detriment of its employee (in causing their contribution rates to substantially increase) whose contributions are responsible for a significant portion of the surplus — Can legislation retroactively authorize a Government employer to extinguish or expropriate its employees’ legal or equitable interest when at the time of its enactment the government was of the view that no such interest existed.


Second Application

Pensions — Surplus — Public service pensions — Government employer either declaring contribution holiday or directing surplus funds to Consolidated Revenue Fund — Whether the removal of the surplus and subsequent deficits in the newly created pension funds which were followed by significant increases in plan member contributions warrants this Court’s attention — Whether statutory pension plan obligations are altered by the fact that the Government is required to maintain its funds in the Consolidated Revenue Fund (“CRF”) — Whether the Government is insulated from its equitable obligations based on its duties to the public at large — Whether a public employer can take a contribution holiday, or withdraw surplus amounts from an ongoing pension fund, and the rights of plan members to these amounts — Whether Parliament intended to expropriate property without compensation where it proceeds on the understanding that the property at issue already belongs to the Government.

The applicant unions and associations representing federal government employees, the RCMP and armed forces personnel brought actions against the government seeking an order requiring the government to return over $28 billion to their pension plans. They alleged that the money had been improperly taken by way of contribution holidays and/or withdrawal of surplus. The plans are mandatory, contributory, defined benefit pension plans and the same in all aspects relevant to the proceedings. Their terms are not subject to collective bargaining or to the Pension Benefits Standards Act, 1985, R.S.C. 1985, c. 32 (2nd Supp.). Two relevant dates exist: (1) the period up to and including March 31, 2000 which precedes the coming into force of Bill C 78 (the legislation amending the Superannuation Acts and thus the plans); and, (2) the period after April 1, 2000 when Bill C 78 came into effect.