Federal Court Refuses To Certify Class Proceeding As "Representative Proceeding" Preferable Procedure

In his December 9, 2015 decision in Canada (Royal Mounted Police) v. Canada (Attorney General) ("Jones"), Justice Locke of the Federal Court refused to certify a class proceeding regarding employees' entitlement to "Extra Duty Allowance" ("EDA") where only one reasonable cause of action was raised. Given the size of the class and the nature of the issue, it was preferable to have the cause of action determined in a "representative proceeding" as opposed to a class proceeding. The decision is an interesting comparison of Federal Court procedure to other court procedures. The decision is also an interesting complement to overtime class actions that have been previously decided in Ontario, which we have discussed here, here, here, and here.