Frontline public servants to be able to retire early without having pensions reduced

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Frontline employees working for the federal government, such as firefighters, paramedics and border services officers, will soon be able to retire after 25 years of service without having their pensions reduced for leaving early.

Treasury Board President Anita Anand announced Thursday that the government would introduce legislative changes to expand early pension eligibility in fall 2024.

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“These frontline workers play crucial roles and they deserve a pension plan that reflects the demanding nature of their safety and security responsibilities,” Anand said.

Affected employees include firefighters working for federal and territorial governments, as well as paramedics and correctional service employees working for territorial governments. They also include border services officers, parliamentary protection officers and search and rescue technicians working for the federal government.

Most federal public servants need to be 60 or 65, depending on when they joined the plan, or have 30 years of service under their belt to get an unreduced pension.

In 2013, the Stephen Harper government changed the public service pension plan to increase the retirement age for new federal hires to 65 and alter the cost-sharing model, intending to save taxpayers $2.6 billion over five years.

Anand said the government’s rationale for expanding benefits for these workers is the “demanding and risky nature of the duty, the demanding training and certification requirements and the lack of opportunity for public service mobility.”

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According to Anand, expanding retirement eligibility will cost $175 million, with ongoing annual costs of $21 million.

The change comes after Anand received a recommendation to expand early pension eligibility for these workers from the Public Service Pension Advisory Committee in December 2023. The Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat, under former minister Mona Fortier, submitted a proposal on behalf of the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) to the committee to review the possibility of expanding early retirement eligibility.

When asked about extending the same benefit to other public servants who aren’t working on the frontlines, Anand said she was “definitely open” to receiving recommendations from the committee.

The government’s commitment to providing benefits of “25 and out” has been a key demand among border services officers. National president of the Customs and Immigration Union Mark Weber said the union has asked for better retirement benefits for years to match other law enforcement and public safety workers.

However, pensions can’t legally be negotiated at the bargaining table under the Federal Public Sector Labour Relations Act. Instead, they fall under the Public Service Superannuation Act and the Income Tax Act, with changes requiring legislative amendments.

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Anand said recent negotiations with border services workers ahead of a pending strike, and expanding retirement benefits were “two separate processes,” adding that this has been in progress “long before the last 10 days.”

Retirement after 25 years of service without a pension reduction is already offered to frontline employees at Correctional Service Canada, with similar benefits provided to workers at the Canadian Armed Forces and the RCMP. The government said expanding eligibility will provide “consistency.”

In a recent submission to the Public Interest Commission about the border services group, the Treasury Board said the federal public service pension plan offers protection against inflation, unlike some other plans, and that public sector workers are more likely to be covered by a plan than those in the private sector (87.8 per cent versus 22.8 per cent).

It also said public sector plans are 24 per cent more expensive than “those in the general Canadian marketplace” but that public sector workers’ average retirement age is just over two years younger than private sector employees.

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In a statement, PSAC said it “applauds” the government’s announcement, which will impact thousands of workers across Canada, such as Parks Canada wildland firefighters and Coast Guard search and rescue technicians.

“After years of being treated like second-class workers, this legislation will offer a dignified retirement to thousands of frontline workers,” PSAC national president Sharon DeSousa said in the release. “Nearly a decade of hard work and advocacy by our members has finally paid off.”

Anand said aims to adopt the legislative amendments as quickly as possible and will continue to work with the committee on the issue.

“We have a very, very charged legislative agenda right now with less than a week left to go, but I wanted to make sure that the department at the Treasury Board worked across government over the summer to make sure that we were ready first thing in the fall to table that,” Anand said.

“We are approaching a very hot summer, we are going to see public servants put their lives on the line, which they do without hesitation.”

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