Canadian Armed Forces Makes Changes to Leave Policy and Maternity and Parental Allowances

Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) members can expect a multitude of changes to the CAF’s Leave Policy and Maternity and Parental Allowances starting April 1, 2025.

Some of the key expected changes include earlier access to more annual leave, alignment of Maternity and Parental Leave with the Employment Insurance Act, and greater flexibility with the delegation of different types of leave.

“These changes will introduce greater flexibility, expanded eligibility and enhanced management of leave,” stated CANFORGEN 010/25, which announced the upcoming changes.

According to the military statement, the policy was changed after a full review to “provide CAF members with an enhanced and modernized leave policy that aligns with federal and provincial legislation.”

The changes will be reflected in policy from April 1, 2025, with no retroactivity.

Upcoming Changes

Military members can expect access to more annual leave with the new changes. This means members can earn 30 annual leave days after 25 years of service instead of the current policy after 28 years.

Additionally, different types of leave will be delegated with greater flexibility, such as short leave or compassionate leave.

The military also has plans to broadly consider an individual’s prior service and civilian experience when calculating years of service on enrolment for leave entitlement.

Changes for Reservists

The military also has plans to “harmonize” leave across the CAF to ensure that Reserve Force members earn annual leave in the same way Regular Force members do.

However, it is essential to note Reserve Force members with less than five years of service will now earn a maximum of 20 days of annual leave in a year instead of 24.

“The CAF acknowledges that members who commenced a period of service prior to 1 April 25 will have done so with the understanding that they were entitled to two days of annual leave per month.

“In order to ensure the CAF honours the agreed allotment of annual leave, Commanding Officers will grant eligible members up to four days of special leave in each leave year for the duration of their current period of service to ensure that affected members retain the same leave allotment in each leave year in comparison to the annual leave they had before 1 April 2025,” reads the CANFORGEN.

Reserve Force members with less than five years of service, who either commence their period of service or extend their service after March 31, will be subjected to the new rules.

Maternity and Parental Allowance

Under the new policy, Maternity and Parental leave will be aligned with both the Employment Insurance Act and the Act Respecting Parental Insurance.

This will eliminate “the need for members to proceed on LWOP (leave without pay)-Personal reasons for Parental Purposes or ED and T personal reasons for parental purposes when taking advantage of the extended parental leave option,” stated the CANFORGEN.

Additionally, eligible members will be granted 14 deemed days instead of two deemed weeks. This will allow maternity or parental leave to start mid-week without impacting benefits.

More Information

For more information or questions, CAF members can contact Unit Orderly Rooms then the CMP Administrative Response Centre. The ARC can be reached at: internet: CMPARC.CRACPM(AT)FORCES.GC.CA OR INTRANET: (PLUS SIGN)CMP ARC – CRA CPM(AT)CMP D MIL PERS MGT(AT)OTTAWA-HULL, OR BY CALLING 1-833-445-1182, or by visiting here.