Some changes to the pensions and benefits in Budget 2025 are welcome while others are decidedly not.
On Nov. 18, 2025, the federal government presented C-15, the Budget Implementation Act, which at the time of writing, had completed its second reading. It is wide ranging, coming in at more than 600 pages, and it makes several changes that touch pensions and benefits. It includes alterations that will extend early retirement benefits for public safety and law enforcement officers — a change for which the association has long advocated and that ensures equitable retirement benefits for front-line workers. But it also includes provisions of concern such as the framework for the early retirement incentive, which will lead to early retirement of thousands of public servants and may lead to significant confusion with the existing workforce adjustment provisions because employees may not know which rules apply to their case.
It also makes some amendments to legislation that will have a significant impact on RCMP and Canadian Armed Forces veterans, changes that are arguably unjustifiable. First, it modifies the indexation for RCMP disability pensions and it also retroactively changes rules around accommodations and meals for veterans in long-term care.
Currently, RCMP disability benefits increase annually by the greater of either the Consumer Price Index (CPI) or the Wage Rate Calculation (WRC). The WRC uses a formula that includes the average annual gross composite wage of select occupational groups of the federal public administration. This means that disability benefits keep up with the wages of active employees.
Division 19 of C-15 modifies the escalation formula of the RCMP disability pension so that the benefits are indexed based on the CPI alone, effective January 2027. This can seem like a small cut in a single year, but with compound interest, this could lead to a difference of thousands of dollars each year per individual. Amid rising costs of living, retirement income security must be protected, strengthened and respected, now and into the future.
Division 19 also amends the Pension Act to adjust the accommodation and meals charge that veterans pay in longterm care by making changes to the definition of a province. Why does the definition of a province matter? Monthly charges are set according to the lowest user charge in any “province.” Since 1998, the calculations have not included the territories’ rates, which have been significantly lower. The Interpretation Act currently makes it clear that the term “province” includes Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut.
This has led to overpayments by veterans as some territories have had lower monthly charges, and those amounts were not considered. A CBC report estimated that veterans could be getting overcharged by $260 a month or an estimated $3,130 a year. A class action lawsuit on the matter was filed in 2024.
The amendments are also “deemed” to have come into force on July 15, 1998, making this change retroactive. This would end the class action ahead of its certification hearing in 2026. It seems the government is changing the rules of the game, nearly 30 years later.
When veterans were overcharged, they had a reasonable expectation of the correct application of the law. To impose retroactive amendments now erodes the public trust. Veterans and their families deserve support, not measures that leave them out of pocket and paying more for basic necessities.