# 2019-006 Pay and Benefits, Meal expenses

Case summary

F&R Date: 2019-08-12

The grievor challenged the decision to deny him a meal allowance for the time he occupied an “apartment hotel” in Riga, Latvia. He submitted that the meal preparation facilities in the hotel did not equal “adequate cooking facilities.”

The Initial Authority denied the grievance on the basis that the Compensation and Benefit Instructions for the Canadian Forces (CBI) only authorize payment of a meal allowance to Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) members without dependants “when entitlements to ship or store household goods and effects (HG&E) at public expense do not apply.”

The Committee found that because the grievor had no dependants and was posted with the move of his HG&E prohibited, he was entitled to store his HG&E in accordance with the CBI and he was therefore not entitled to a meal allowance. Despite this finding, the Committee recognized the unique circumstances of the Latvia postings and recommended that the CAF seek Treasury Board (TB) authorization for the payment of meal allowances, or an exemption from the policy, for those CAF members without dependants who were posted prohibited to Latvia in 2017. Should the authorization be granted, the Committee further recommended that the grievor receive a meal allowance for the duration of his stay in Riga, Latvia at the applicable rates.

FA decision summary

The Final Authority (FA) partially agreed with the Committee's findings and recommendations. The FA stated that while the TB senior policy analyst had initially stated that there was no authority to grant an exemption from the CBI entitlement conditions for meal allowance, the analyst had subsequently “sought and received a special exemption from within his organization at the TB”. The FA therefore found that the analyst spoke on behalf of the TB and had the authority to grant the exemption, so he did not agree with the Committee's recommendation that the CAF seek the authority. The FA concurred with the Committee that the meal preparation facilities at the hotel, which the grievor was moved into, were not adequate, but since the exemption granted by the TB analyst deemed them to be adequate, he did not have the authority to grant meal allowance for the time which the grievor spent in the hotel. The FA directed the Chief of Military Personnel to make a case to TB for payment of meal allowance and to review the CBI and the Military Foreign Service Instructions in cooperation with TB.