How have courts interpreted statements in the future tense in a pension application?

British Columbia, Canada


The following excerpt is from Bennett v. British Columbia, 2012 BCCA 115 (CanLII):

From a grammatical perspective, since these statements are expressed in the future tense they could be construed as commitments as to future actions. However, a determination of the grammatical sense of the words used does not exhaust the interpretive exercise. As Cory J. said in Schmidt v. Air Products Canada Ltd., 1994 CanLII 104 (SCC), [1994] 2 S.C.R. 611 at 669, for the majority, Documents not normally considered to have legal effect may nonetheless form part of the legal matrix within which the rights of employers and employees participating in a pension plan must be determined. Whether they do so will depend upon the wording of the documents, the circumstances in which they were produced, and the effect which they had on the parties, particularly the employees.

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