Case information

Constitutional law — Division of powers — Labour relations — Aboriginal peoples — Functional test — Tripartite agreement on provision of police services — Regulation and oversight of First Nations Public Security Pension Plan — Police officers and special constables hired and remunerated by band councils that are members of plan — Whether Federal Court of Appeal erred in law in concluding that police officers, who are employed by band councils that are members of plan, are employed in connection with operation of work, undertaking or business that is within federal legislative authority within meaning of Pension Benefits Standards Act, 1985 — Constitution Act, 1867, ss. 91(24), 92(13) and 92(16) — Pension Benefits Standards Act, 1985, R.S.C. 1985, c. 32 (2nd Supp.), s. 4, “included employment” — Police Act, CQLR, c. P 13.1, ss. 90 93.

Case summaries are prepared by the Office of the Registrar of the Supreme Court of Canada (Law Branch). Please note that summaries are not provided to the Judges of the Court. They are placed on the Court file and website for information purposes only.

In July 2016, the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (“OSFI”) ruled that the First Nations Public Security Pension Plan (“Plan”), which was originally registered under the federal pension benefits standards legislation, had to instead be subject to Quebec legislation and therefore had to be transferred to the competent authority, Retraite Québec. The OSFI’s decision was based on Nishnawbe Aski Police Services Board v. Public Service Alliance of Canada, 2015 FCA 211, in which the Federal Court of Appeal had held, applying the functional test to determine whether the regulation of labour relations was a matter for the federal government, that the Nishnawbe Aski police force’s labour relations fell under provincial jurisdiction. The court had reached that conclusion in Nishnawbe Aski because the essential nature and functions of the community’s police force involved the provision of services in the same way as other provincial and municipal police forces. The respondent Sylvain Picard was the Plan’s administrator under the federal legislation, and the respondent RBA Financial Group was its manager. They applied for judicial review of the OSFI’s decision in order to have the Plan remain under that body’s supervision. The Federal Court allowed the respondents’ application for judicial review, concluding that police officers and special constables hired and remunerated by band councils that are members of the Plan are employed in a work, undertaking or business that is within federal legislative authority, and that the federal legislation therefore applied to the Plan. The Federal Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal of the applicant, the Attorney General of Quebec, who had joined the proceedings as an intervener in the Federal Court. The Court of Appeal held that the fact that the employer of the police officers and special constables was a band council and not an independent entity sufficed to distinguish this case from Nishnawbe Aski and thus for it to conclude that the federal government had legislative authority.