The taxpayer, an electrical engineer at Ontario Hydro, suffered chronic depression and became eligible under for long-term wage-loss benefits under his employer's group disability plan. When he turned 65, the wage-replacement plans changed to pension supplement payments, also paid by the insurer.
Masse DJ found that the taxpayer was ineligible to split the payments with his wife, as the payments were not "pension income." There was nothing in the taxpayer's insurance policy to indicate any intention to establish a pension plan, the fact that the insurance provided that benefits were paid in a different form after age 65 did not change the payments' character and the payments were not provided by a pension fund, a pension plan, a RRIF or an RRSP.