The applicant brought a motion seeking enforcement and interpretation of a consent divorce order requiring the respondent to divide his pension benefits such that the applicant would receive 40% of the current plan benefit.
The parties disagreed whether the order required a "linked" or "delinked" pension division under the Ontario Public Service Employees Union Pension Plan.
Applying principles of contractual interpretation to the consent order, the court held that the language requiring the pension to be divided so the applicant was "entitled, as a member of the plan" supported a delinked structure creating two separate pensions.
The court further held that such an arrangement did not offend the Pension Benefits Act because payment to the applicant would still only occur once the member’s pension came into pay.
The respondent was ordered to instruct the pension administrator to divide the pension on a delinked basis.
