# 2020-003 Pay and Benefits, Home Equity Assistance

Case summary

F&R Date: 2020-06-08

The grievor was advised in March 2018 that she was posted from Cold Lake, Alberta in 2018. On 19 April 2018, revisions to the Canadian Forces Integrated Relocation Program (CFIRP) Directive came into effect, removing the option to apply for 100% Home Equity Assistance (HEA) reimbursement from the Core envelope for homes sold in a depressed market area. The grievor's home sold in July 2018 and she suffered an equity loss of $78,000. The grievor interpreted the updated CFIRP Directive to mean that Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) members are entitled to be reimbursed for any financial loss incurred in relation to the sale of their principal residence. As redress, she sought the full reimbursement of her equity loss.

The Initial Authority (IA) found that, on 17 July 2018, the Treasury Board Secretariat (TBS) declared that houses sold in Cold Lake after 18 April 2018 would be subject to the revised version of the CFIRP Directive HEA policy which no longer considered the depressed market status. The IA denied the grievance, finding that the sale of the grievor's home, which was sold after 18 April 2018, could not be administered under the previous version of the CFIRP Directive.

The Committee first considered whether the grievor had a vested right to be administered under the previous CFIRP Directive but found that she would have had to sell her house before 19 April 2018 to have locked-in a vested right. The Committee found that although the CFIRP Directive does entitle full reimbursement of a home equity loss, additional reimbursement beyond $30,000 is dependent on available funding in the Custom and Personalized funding envelopes. The Committee then noted that in an interview given by the Director of Compensation and Benefits Administration (DCBA) to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in May 2018, the DCBA stated that the intent of the CAF was to address catastrophic home equity losses using a “caveat” found in the CFIRP Directive. DCBA staff advised the Committee that the “caveat” was CFIRP, article 2.1.01. The Committee found that article 2.1.01 did apply to the grievor in that her issue was directly related to her relocation and the extent of her equity loss was exceptional in nature. The Committee recommended that the Final Authority direct DCBA to forward the grievor's claim for full reimbursement of her equity loss to the TBS with the full support of the CAF.