“Certainty in the resolution of financial issues flowing from the dissolution of family relationships has been a policy imperative underlying much of the recent reform of family law in Canada. Child support, spousal support, and the division of family property have all been clarified through legislative and regulatory reform. While certainty should be tempered by limited judicial discretion to ensure fairness, certainty facilitates two essential policy objectives of family law: the encouragement of settlement and the avoidance of costly litigation to resolve financial issues.
The Government of Ontario enacted legislation that came into effect in 2012 amending the Pension Benefits Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. P.8 (the “PBA“) and the Family Law Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. F.3 (the “FLA“), to simplify the valuation of pensions for purposes of calculating net family property. This legislation brought much-needed certainty to the valuation of what, in many cases, is the most significant asset held by litigants on their valuation date. A formula was established for pension valuations and the responsibility for calculating that value was imposed on pension administrators. Thus, courts largely got out of the business of pension valuation. For litigants this provided both certainty and fairness. It also allowed them to avoid the costly process of retaining actuarial experts and litigating competing pension valuations.
The Ontario rules for valuating provincially regulated pensions for equalization purposes are relatively clear and easily applied. However, the valuation of federally regulated pensions is not as certain. Parliament has not reformed the law regarding pension valuations to bring it in line with the Ontario legislation. Until it does, Ontario courts must apply, to the extent reasonably possible, the provincial approach to valuing federal pensions for family law equalization.”