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Unfortunately, there is no further news to report on our on-going fight with the “marriage after 60” clause. It is an issue that should be have been resolved after all of these years. We strongly encourage you to keep writing and lobbying to have this unfair and discriminatory clause eliminat-ed. We will keep you up-to-date on any further movement on this.

After hearing lengthy argu-ments from both appellants and respondents, the outcome of the multi-billion dollar pension surplus case was placed in the hands, and minds, of nine Supreme Court Justices.

The case, legally titled

Professional Institute of the Public Services of Canada, et al., v. Attorney General of Canada, et al. , was heard on 9 February 2012 with many Canadians, particularly the members of 17 public service alliances and associations who took the government to court, anxiously awaiting the outcome. AFP/AAC is one of the 17 appel-lants in the case.

The Justices took their time, asking numerous detailed ques-

tions and challenging lawyers on both sides to make strong argu-ments for the case but at the end of the hearing, they announced they were reserving their decision. That means the decade long wait continues, with $30 billion at stake. The final decision will impact more that 700,000 retired and existing public servants. To learn more about the pen-sion surplus battle, Bill C-78 which granted the government unfettered access to the pension surplus (which it used to pay down the national debt) and the subse-quent lawsuits, please read Issue 11 of the AFP/AAC newsletter, which you can find at www.afpaac.ca or by requesting a copy at 1-613-432-9491.

It has been a busy 2012 so far for AFP/AAC. We are currently planning our Annual General Meeting which we invite you to attend. We welcome our mem-ber’s input and insights as we work to represent retired CF personnel and their spouses. Work is also underway on the New Not-For-Profit Act, and more.

The AFP/AAC Annual General Meeting will be held on Monday 17 September 2012 at 2:00 p.m. EST by teleconference call. For those members wishing to participate, please contact us by calling 1-613-432-9491 or email us at executivedirector@afpaac.ca to receive the call-in information. There will be no costs incurred for members to call-in.

The 2011 audit was conducted by Nephin & Winter Chartered Accountants and subsequent draft financial statements were provid-ed to the board. They will be presented by treasurer Chuck McCabe for approval at the next director’s meeting.

The auditor reported that, “In our opinion, these financial state-ments present fairly, in all materi-al respects, the balance sheet of Armed Forces Pensioners’/ Annuitants’ Association of Canada as of December 31, 2011, and its results of operations and its cash flows for the year then ended in accordance with Canadian generally accepted accounting principles.”

The financial statements are made available to members upon request.

The new Canada Not-for-profit Corp-orations Act (NFPAct) establishes a new set of rules for federally incorporated not-for-profit corporations in Canada. These new rules will replace Part II of the Canada Corporations Act

(old Act), the law that has governed federal corporations for nearly a century. The rules under the NFP Act are modern, flexible and more suited to the needs of the not-for-profit sector.

We are required to make the transition to the NFP Act by 17 October 2014.

The transition to comply with the new Act is a five step process:

1. Review letters patent and by-laws 2. Prepare articles 3. Create by-laws 4. Get members’ approval 5. File the required documents

AFP/AAC have begun to educate them-selves on the new Act and are working on reference documents, have already completed government forms, established a first draft of the new bylaws and a list of both necessary and optional bylaw changes.

For inquiries, comments or to make a newsletter submission, please email us at executivedirector@afpaac.ca or call 1-613-432-9491.