What is the impact of a husband's decision to retire?

The paradigm continues. Inevitably, the husband’s decision to retire, and the corresponding loss of income, results in a dramatic and diminished capacity to pay spousal support and, correlatively, places the wife in a precarious financial situation, even though the property of the marriage has been divided equally. More often than not there is no reasonable prospect of her entering the workforce post-divorce, and the plea of continued “need” is invoked under the principles of Boston v. Boston, 2001 SCC 43, [2001] 2 S.C.R. 413. There is frequently a perception that any financial hardship which the husband faces, as a result of the retirement, can be remedied by his reentering the workforce.