Government Corporations Operation Act (R.S.C., 1985, c. G-4)

Short Title

Marginal note:Short title

1 This Act may be cited as the Government Corporations Operation Act.

Interpretation

Definition of corporation

2 In this Act, corporation means a company incorporated under Part I of the Canada Corporations Act, chapter C-32 of the Revised Statutes of Canada, 1970, or a corporation incorporated under the Canada Business Corporations Act, all the issued shares of which are owned by or held in trust for Her Majesty in right of Canada except, in the case of a company incorporated under Part I of the Canada Corporations Act, shares necessary to qualify other persons as directors.

Status, Powers and Personnel of Corporations

Marginal note:Agent of Her Majesty

3 Every corporation is for all its purposes an agent of Her Majesty in right of Canada.

Marginal note:Employment of officers and employees

• 4 (1) Every corporation may, notwithstanding any statute or law, employ such officers or employees as it deems necessary to conduct its operations and determine the conditions of employment and the remuneration of those officers or employees.

• Marginal note:Corporation pays remuneration

  (2) The remuneration determined under subsection (1) shall be paid by the corporation.

• Marginal note:Control

  (3) Every corporation has the control and supervision of the officers and employees employed by the corporation.

Marginal note:Pension or superannuation

• 5 (1) The Public Service Superannuation Act does not apply to officers and employees employed by a corporation but each corporation may, with the approval of the Governor in Council, establish and support a pension fund, a group insurance plan or other pension or superannuation arrangements for the benefit of officers and employees employed by the corporation and their dependants, including their spouse, common-law partner and children, any other relative of the officer or employee, and any child or other relative of the spouse or common-law partner of the officer or employee. A corporation may, with the approval of the Governor in Council, continue any such fund, plan or arrangement, established by the corporation, that existed on July 26, 1946.

• Definition of common-law partner

  (1.1) In subsection (1), common-law partner, in relation to an individual, means a person who is cohabiting with the individual in a conjugal relationship, having so cohabited for a period of at least one year.

• Marginal note:Superannuation rights preserved

  (2) Notwithstanding subsection (1) or any other statute or law, a person who, immediately prior to that person’s employment by a corporation, was a contributor under the Public Service Superannuation Act continues while employed by the corporation to be a contributor under that Act, and for the purposes of that Act that person’s service with the corporation shall be counted as pensionable service.

• Marginal note:Re-appointment in public service

  (3) If a person referred to in subsection (2) is retired from employment with a corporation for any reason other than misconduct, that person is eligible for re-appointment in the public service.

• Marginal note:Application of ss. (2) and (3)

  (4) Subsections (2) and (3) do not apply in respect of any person who becomes employed by a corporation on or after January 1, 1954 to whom, but for this subsection, subsections (2) and (3) would apply, and every such person is deemed, for the purposes of the Public Service Superannuation Act, to have ceased to be employed in the public service, for a reason other than disability or misconduct, as of the date of that person’s employment by the corporation and to have ceased to be a contributor under the Public Service Superannuation Act at that date.

• Marginal note:Benefits continued

  (5) Any person who at the time of that person’s employment with a corporation held a position in the public service or was an employee within the meaning of the Public Service Employment Act continues to retain and is eligible for all the benefits, except salary as an employee in the public service, that that person would have been eligible to receive had that person remained an employee in the public service.

• Marginal note:Application of Government Employees Compensation Act

  (6) The Government Employees Compensation Act applies to officers and employees of a corporation and for the purposes of that Act those officers and employees shall be deemed to be employees in the federal public administration.

Application

Marginal note:Application to corporation by proclamation

6 This Act applies to a corporation only from the date of the issue of a proclamation by the Governor in Council declaring this Act to be applicable to that corporation.

Marginal note:Cessation of application

• 7 (1) The Governor in Council may issue a proclamation declaring that this Act shall cease to apply to a corporation in respect of which a proclamation has been issued pursuant to section 6.

• Marginal note:No prejudice to superannuation rights or benefits

  (2) On the effective date of a proclamation issued pursuant to subsection (1), this Act ceases to apply to the corporation named therein and the corporation ceases to be an agent of Her Majesty but without prejudice to any rights acquired by any person pursuant to subsection 5(2), (3) or (5).