
Français	Contact Us	Help	Search	Canada Site
What's New	About Us	Policies	Site Map	Home

The new Isolated Posts and Government Housing Directive - effective date: 1 August 2007

July 31, 2007

To: Functional Heads of Administration, Human Resources and Financial Services, Federal Regional Councils and Designated Departmental Coordinators for the IPGHD

CC: Federal Regional Councils and Designated Departmental Coordinators for the IPGHD

Subject: The new Isolated Posts and Government Housing Directive - effective date: 1 August 2007

Please distribute this notice, the new directive and the amended appendices of the Isolated Posts and Government Housing Directive (IPGHD) as quickly as possible to persons at your headquarters and regional offices who are involved in the administration of the isolated post allowances.

The Treasury Board Secretariat has made revisions to the Isolated Posts and Government Housing Directive resulting from the cyclical review. These changes were arrived at following consultations with members of the National Joint Council Isolated Posts and Government Housing Committee and are in accordance with the approved methodologies. The new IPGHD has been amended to reflect these changes and is effective August 1, 2007.

You are invited to consult the Qs & As which are posted in the "What's New" section of the NJC website (http://www.njc-cnm.gc.ca/)

The new directive will be available on the NJC website. Further detailed information on the changes to the Directive will also be available on the Treasury Board of Canada website on http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/pubs_pol/hrpubs/ipgh-dpill/ipgh-pile_e.asp

(a) The Environment Allowance

Every five years shortly after the release of the Canadian Census of the population of Canada, the TBS conducts a review of the Environment Allowance classification of all locations listed in the IPGH Directive, in accordance with the agreed designation criteria contained in the directive.

The results of the Environment Allowance classification review have been incorporated in Appendix A. Please note that a number of locations have been "deleted" from the Appendix either because there are no federal employees working in those locations or because the location has lost its status as an isolated post. A mitigation process for the locations which have lost their status as an isolated post due to the new Designation Criteria has been developed on an exceptional basis. Each employee working in the following locations must immediately receive a written notice as well as a copy of the Communiqué explaining the reasons why they no longer qualify as an isolated post:

Gaspé(including Rivière-au-Renard), Grande-Rivière, Chandler.

A copy of the Communiqué is appended to this notice.

For the other locations (Burin, Head of Bay d'Espoir), please refer to section 2.7.3 of the new directive.

Also note that the new EA classification ranges have now been published in ascending order (for example an isolated post with an EA of 1 is now represented as having an EA of 5).

(b) The Environment Allowance rates, Appendix B, have been increased effective August 1^st, 2007.

(d) As a result of surveys conducted by Statistics Canada in Nunavut and Alberta, the Living Cost Differential levels of a number of locations have been revised.

(e) The Shelter Cost Differential (SCD) rates have been adjusted and can be found at Appendix K-1 (private accommodation) and K-2 (government housing). These are effective August 1, 2007.

Please note that there is now a "single" rate of SCD for employees (with or without dependants) living in private accommodation at a location that qualifies for the SCD.

Note: You have received a notice that the Special Accommodation Allowance in Yellowknife is discontinued effective August 1^st, 2007 given the SCD has now exceeded the SAA.

http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/hr-rh/in-ai/2007/0605_e.asp

(f) As a result of surveys conducted by Statistics Canada, the Fuel and Utilities Differential levels of a number of locations at Appendix A have been revised effective October 1, 2006.

http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/pubs_pol/hrpubs/ipgh-dpill/ipgh-pile-a_e.asp

No pay action should be taken to implement the revisions to Appendices B, C and K, mentioned in paragraphs b), c) and e) above, until instructions are received from the applicable pay office of Public Works and Government Services Canada.

To ensure that all employees in a location receive notification of changes at the same time, the NJC-IPGH Committee has agreed, as is currently outlined in section 2.12.2 of the Directive, that TBS will notify the departments of the effective date of any change to an allowance and departments will provide a written notice to each affected employee within 60 days of publication of the TBS information notice. In the present instance, the notice to employees must be sent within 60 of the date of this Information Notice. The TBS will actively pursue with Heads of HR any failure by a manager to send out the notice to affected employees.

Any retroactive payments resulting from the above changes are to be administered in the same manner as retroactive increases to employees' pay.

For purposes of retroactive payment, the "day approval is given" shall be the date of this amendment list. In the case of EA, LCD, SCD these would be August 1^st, 2007 and F&UD, this would be October 1^st 2006.

(g) FIXED RATE VTA

The new 100% fixed rate Vacation Travel Assistance benefit replaces the former two parallel types of VTA and is not intended to be a reimbursement of expenses incurred or to be incurred. Rather, it is a value assigned to a benefit (as determined by the TBS) for which employees and their dependant(s) are not required to travel away from the post or to take "paid leave". You will find the published rate for each isolated post appended herein. Departments will add a 6% GST to each rate. Note: this rate is in effect until such time when TBS publishes an update.

For this year only, any employee (and dependants) who has already requested the 80% non accountable VTA between April 1^st and August 1^st, 2007, and who has received an amount that is lesser than the amount published by the TBS on August 1^st, 2007, shall be reimbursed the difference. Compensation Officers will endeavour to action the reimbursement to each affected employee by the end of this calendar year (December 31^st 2007). The retroactivity does not apply to those employees who were reimbursed expenses by choosing the fully accountable VTA between April and August.

You are invited to consult the Qs & As which are posted in the "What's New" section of the NJC website (http://www.njc-cnm.gc.ca/) for more information.

This publication will be available shortly on the Treasury Board Secretariat Web Site. To access the site, type the following in the address :http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca

Departmental employees or regional staff should direct any questions on this subject to the appropriate departmental corporate official who, if need be, can contact the appropriate officers at the Treasury Board Secretariat. A list of designated departmental coordinators for each department can be found on:

http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/pubs_pol/hrpubs/ipgh-dpill/ddhc-cmdl_e.asp

Information sessions for managers, regional staff and bargaining agents are currently being developed. You will be informed of upcoming schedules.

Claudia Zovatto
Senior Director
Excluded Groups and Administrative Services
Labour Relations and Compensation Operations

National Joint Council of the Public Service of Canada

August 1, 2007

COMMUNIQUÉ

Isolated Posts and Government Housing Committee

IMPACT MITIGATION – REVOCATION OF ENVIRONMENT ALLOWANCE (EA) FOR GASPÉ (RIVIÈRE-AU-RENARD), GRANDE-RIVIÈRE AND CHANDLER, QUÉBEC

The Isolated Posts and Government Housing Directive states that when a community south of the 60^th parallel of latitude attains a population of 10,000 but not more than 15,000, it shall remain an isolated post if it is:

(a) not accessible by an all-weather road; or

(b) accessible by a an all-weather road and is more than 1,610 kilometres by road from a location south of the 60^th parallel of latitude with a population of more than 100,000.

A location south of the 60^th parallel of latitude with a population of less than 10,000 may be designated as an isolated post if it is:

(a) accessible by means of an all-weather road and is more than:

161 kilometres by road from a location south of the 60^th parallel with a population of more than 10,000, and
322 kilometres by road from a location south of the 60^th parallel with a population of more than 50,000, and

(b) it is entitled to 45 points or more in accordance with the EA criteria set out in Appendix H, Section 1.

Every five years, shortly after the release of the Census of Canada: Census of Population, the Treasury Board Secretariat is responsible for conducting a review of the Environment Allowance classification of all locations listed in the IPGH Directive, in accordance with the agreed designation criteria contained in the directive.

As part of the cyclical review of the directive, the IPGH Committee had proposed that the results of the 2005 Review of the Designation Criteria be implemented. This review stemmed from the 2000 decision by the Executive Committee to strike a joint review group to thoroughly examine the designation criteria issue which had been raised by employees and managers of the region and to report on it at the next cyclical review.

The IPGH Committee conducted the review and recommended, after consultation with experts from the Census Division – Statistics Canada, that the Census Subdivisions (CSD) and Designated Places (DPL) designations be the starting point in establishing the population for a particular location. The review also recommended the abolition of the Lands Factor, as it was no longer relevant, and the redistribution to the Climate Factor of the points allotted for this factor. It was further recommended that the population ranges currently set out in the IPGH Directive be maintained and that the new Designation Criteria be applied to all isolated posts including Gaspé, Rivière-au-Renard, Grande-Rivière and Chandler.

The results of the 2007 classification review of the communities indicate that the Town of Gaspé (which now includes Rivière-au-Renard) and the towns of Chandler and of Grande-Rivière no longer qualify as isolated posts.

The 2006 Census indicates that Gaspé has a population of 14,819. Rivière-au-Renard is not a distinct community and it has been part of Gaspé since the 1971 amalgamation. Grande-Rivière and Chandler are respectively 88 kilometres and 103 kilometres from Gaspé and less than the 161 kilometres distance threshold.

The EA results for each of the communities are listed below:

Gaspé

Population: 14,819 (Source: 2006 Census of Canada)

Access: Accessible by an all weather road and less than 1,610 kilometres by road from a location south of the 60th parallel of latitude with a population of more than 100,000 (698 km to Québec, population 491,142)

Does not qualify as an isolated post.

Grande-Rivière

Population: 3,409 (Source: 2006 Census of Canada)

Access: Less than 161 km by road from a location of more than 10,000 population (88 km to Gaspé, population 14,819)

Does not qualify as an isolated post.

Chandler

Population: 7,914 (Source: 2006 Census of Canada)

Access: Less than 161 km by road from a location of more than 10,000 population (103 km to Gaspé, population 14,819)

Does not qualify as an isolated post.

The Town of Gaspé (which includes Rivière-au-Renard) does not qualify for an EA: it does not meet the first criteria as its population exceeds 10,000.

Grande-Rivière does not qualify for an EA due to its distance from Gaspé (population 14,819)

Chandler does not qualify for an EA due to its distance from Gaspé (population 14,819)

In order to mitigate the impact of these results on employees in those communities, the National Joint Council Isolated Posts and Government Housing Committee (NJC-IPGHC) has developed an interim process on an exceptional basis for the phasing-out of the Environment Allowance in the affected communities that no longer qualify.

Phase-Out Process

The Environment Allowance will be reduced at the rate of $100 per month; and,
Each employee (and their dependants) will retain the entitlement to the Vacation Travel Assistance benefit only for any year for which an EA amount is payable.

This means that these communities are no longer entitled to benefits under Part III, Sections 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.8 and 3.9.

It is anticipated that the phase-out will take approximately two to three years to complete.

Departmental employees or regional staff should direct any questions on this subject to their Designated Departmental Coordinator for the IPGHD (http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/pubs_pol/hrpubs/ipgh-dpill/ddhc-cmdl_e.asp), the appropriate departmental corporate official who, if need be, can contact the appropriate officers at the Treasury Board Secretariat.