Military expecting to save $30M per year with targeted housing benefit for troops
CTV
The Canadian Armed Forces is rolling out a new housing benefit that a senior commander says will better help troops struggling to find affordable accommodations while saving millions of dollars every year.
The Canadian Armed Forces is rolling out a new housing benefit that a senior commander says will better help troops struggling to find affordable accommodations while saving millions of dollars every year.
The Canadian Forces Housing Differential will supplement the incomes of members who have to live and work in areas of the country with high rental costs.
That includes Canadian Forces Base Comox on Vancouver Island, where some members were recently told they could contact Habitat for Humanity if they were having trouble finding a place to live.
The benefit is set to come into effect on July 1 and will replace an existing allowance called the post living differential, or PLD, that sought to offset the cost of living and working in particularly expensive communities.
Unlike that allowance, whose rates have been frozen since 2009, the new housing benefit will be tied to salary to help those who need it most, said Brig.-Gen. Virginia Tattersall, the military's director general of compensation and benefits.
The result is that thousands of members who don't currently qualify for the PLD allowance will start to receive the housing benefit, while thousands of others will see their PLD cash cut off -- at a net savings of about $30 million per year.
"This benefit is about us being equitable," Tattersall said in an interview. "It is truly trying to look after those who need it the most. So hence why it is more the junior ranks that will benefit from this than it is the senior ranks."
