| From a Letter to CARP by the Minister of National Defence
Retirement benefits for members of the Canadian Forces and their survivors are provided for by the Canadian Forces Superannuation Act. Section 31 of the Act addresses the survivor's ineligibility to an allowance where marriage or cohabitation began after the member reached age 60.
Most private and public sector pension plans restrict eligibility to survivor benefits to only those individuals who were married to, or in a common-law relationship with a plan member before the member retired. However, the Canadian Forces Superannuation Act provides a more generous benefit. In addition to recognizing survivors acquired before a plan member's retirement, the Act also recognizes survivors who married or entered into a common-law relationship with a plan member who had already retired but had not yet turned 60. This provision was included in the Act in recognition of the fact that members of the Canadian Forces retire, on average. at a much younger age than their civilian counterparts in the Public Service. The age of 60 was selected because it coincides with the normal retirement age at which public service employees would be entitled to an unreduced pension. In considering the pension costs associated with providing survivor befits and the contribution rates | necessary to offset these costs, factors such as marriage rates, divorce rates and spousal mortality rates are all taken into account by the pension plan's actuaries. The contribution rate established under the Canadian Forces Superannuation Act is 
based on the assumption that not all members will be survived by eligible spouses for a number of reasons, such as they never married their spouses predeceased them, they divorced. or they married after age 60. In 1992 the Canadian Forces Superannuation Act was amended | to give retired plan members some flexibility in their ability to provide protection for spouses acquired after reaming age 60. However, Bill C-55 made provision for this on a cost neutral basis, that is, without any overall additional cost to the Canadian forces superannuation account. Pensioners can elect to reduce the amount of their own befits in order to provide a pension for a surviving spouse who would otherwise be entitled to a survivor's allowance. Thus the cost of providing the optional survivor benefit is absorbed entirely by those plan members who choose to take advantage of the benefit. It is reasonable and responsible for an employer to apply limits to the costs involved when determining pension arrangements for its employees. This is especially true for the government as the employer, given that it is the taxpayers of Canada who must fund the employers share of the pension plan. To give spouses of post age 60 unions the same benefits as other survivors without adjustment to the members benefits would increase plan costs and place a substantial portion of this additional cost on taxpayers. | |
