Other Canada Pension Plan (CPP)

Decision

[1] The Claimant, S. M., was late submitting his application to the Appeal Division. Unfortunately, I cannot give him more time to submit his application. This means that his application cannot proceed, and the Appeal Division will close his file.

Overview

[2] The Claimant applied for a Canadian Pension Plan (CPP) death benefit, survivor’s benefit and children’s benefits.

[3] The Minister of Employment and Social Development (Minister) denied the Claimant’s application because the deceased contributor did not have sufficient contributions to the CPP to be eligible for these benefits.

[4] The Claimant appealed the Minister’s decision to the Tribunal’s General Division, but it summarily dismissed his appeal on February 2, 2022. In other words, it dismissed the appeal without a hearing.

[5] The Claimant filed an application for leave to appeal the General Division decision on April 29, 2025.

Issues

[6] The issues in this appeal are:

1. a) Was the application to the Appeal Division late?
2. b) Can I extend the time for filing the application?

Analysis

The application was late

[7] On December 5, 2022, important changes were made to the law that governs the Tribunal.^{Footnote 1} Among those changes, Parliament removed the General Division’s power to summarily dismiss an appeal.^{Footnote 2} And, for people who had already received a summary dismissal decision from the General Division, it set a new deadline for filing an application to the Appeal Division: March 6, 2023.^{Footnote 3}

[8] The Tribunal received the application for leave to appeal on April 29, 2025, so it was late.^{Footnote 4}

I cannot give the Applicant more time to file the application

[9] When Parliament changed the law, it didn’t give the Appeal Division any flexibility to accept late applications from summary dismissal decisions. This means I don’t have the power to give the Claimant more time to file his application.

Conclusion

[10] I cannot give the Claimant more time for filing his application to the Appeal Division. This means that the application will not proceed.