2019 year in review for the Pension Division Review Project

Part 6 of the Family Law Act and the Division of Pensions Regulation set out the legal framework for dividing pension benefits after the breakdown of a spousal relationship. This legal framework first came into force in the 1990s and, like much of British Columbia’s family-law legislation, saw some significant revisions when the Family Law Act came into force in March 2013. Having passed the fifth anniversary of those revisions, the time appeared to BCLI Read more…

Child Protection Project Committee considers disclosure under the Child, Family and Community Service Act

BCLI’s Child Protection Project Committee continued its review of the Child, Family and Community Service Act at its November 2019 committee meeting, moving on to a new topic. At this meeting the committee considered whether to add new disclosure requirements to the act. The committee discussed two issues in the meeting. The first concerned cases in which a director is applying to extend a supervision order or a temporary custody order. The committee considered whether Read more…

BCLI Executive Director to step down

Kathleen Cunningham has advised the Board of the BC Law Institute that she will be stepping down as Executive Director at the end of May 2020 to pursue new opportunities. The Board wishes her well and thank her for her years of dedicated service. Kathleen joined the BC Law Institute and Canadian Centre for Elder Law in June 2015 and helped to accomplish considerable work and progress. As Executive Director, Kathleen helped to raise BCLI’s Read more…

Review of Division of Pensions Regulation and administrative fees take centre stage at November 2019 meeting of the Pension Division Review Project Committee

At this month’s meeting of the BCLI Pension Division Review Project Committee the committee tackled two topics. First, it reviewed the Division of Pensions Regulation, including the forms prescribed under the regulation. Second, it examined the fees that may be charged by a pension-plan administrator to the parties in a pension-division case. The Division of Pensions Regulation contains a significant amount of detail on how to divide pensions under part 6 of the Family Law Read more…

Attendance at the 2019 AGE-WELL and Canadian Association on Gerontology Conferences

Introduction In October I travelled to Moncton, New Brunswick for the 2019 AGE-WELL Annual Conference: Exploring the Future of Technology and Aging. This was followed by the 2019 Canadian Association on Gerontology (CAG) conference: Navigating the Tides of Aging Together. In this blog, I describe some of the highlights from the conferences.   AGE-WELL Annual Conference AGE-WELL is a network of researchers and trainees doing research and creating technology to help older Canadians and their Read more…