# 2022-192 Careers, Leave travel assistance

Case summary

F&R date: 2023-08-29

The grievor contested the denial of his request for Leave travel assistance (LTA) to visit his non-Canadian spouse overseas. He grieved that Compensation and Benefit Instructions for the Canadian Forces (CBI) 209.50 is not inclusive for members who choose to marry a non-Canadian spouse. The grievor contended that the current LTA policy allowed for discrimination based on nationality. As redress, the grievor sought approval of his LTA request.

The Director General Compensation and Benefits, acting as the Initial Authority (IA), found that regardless of the nationality of the grievor's spouse, he did not meet LTA eligibility criteria. The IA determined that the grievor's separation with his spouse was not due to service reasons and he was neither entitled to separation expense (SE) (CBI 208.997) benefits nor absent from his place of duty for 60 continuous days. The IA denied redress.

The Committee found that the grievor was not aggrieved, as the intent of the LTA benefit is to reunite members with their loved ones when separation has been imposed upon a member as a requirement of their service. The Committee further found that the benefit did not discriminate against the grievor and noted that both the LTA and SE criteria apply equally to all members of the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF), regardless of the nationality of their dependents, or where they reside.

The Committee made an observation that the CAF may wish to review the LTA benefit, under a multicultural and gender-based analysis, to verify whether it is helping or hindering the CAF in achieving their personnel-related objectives. The Committee further observed that the CAF may wish to consider designing and employing dedicated definitions within the LTA benefit rather than using definitions from other provisions with different purposes.

The Committee recommended that the Final Authority not afford the grievor redress.

FA decision summary

The Chief of the Defence Staff, as Final Authority, agreed with the Committee's findings and the recommendation to not grant redress. He also agreed with the Committee's suggestions for reviewing the definitions and the hierarchy used in the CBI, and directed the Chief of Military Personnel to ensure that these recommendations were presented to Treasury Board for consideration in the next cyclical policy review.