Reasons
The ruling of the unanimous court was given by Justice Binnie. He agreed with the lower court's ruling that the legislation had the effect of disproportionately harming women, and that it was a violation section 15(1) of the Charter.
Concerning section 1, Binnie found that the legislation was reasonable limitation on the rights of workers. He rejected the union's argument that financial circumstances can never be the basis of a limitation of rights, rather where there are exceptional circumstances, such as a financial crisis, "elected governments must be accorded significant scope to take remedial measures, even if the measures taken have an adverse effect on a Charter right." However, Binnie made sure to distinguish a previous observation made earlier in Nova Scotia v. Martin (2003), where it was stated that "budgetary considerations in and of themselves cannot normally be invoked as a free-standing pressing and substantial objective for the purposes of s.1 of the Charter".
It was noted that the government was under considerable pressure and had cut costs in many areas. The government cut school funding, froze wages, closed hospital beds, and laid off thousands of employees. Consequently, Binnie observed that all these actions of the government indicated a fiscal crisis that would amount to a "pressing and substantial objective".
- the financial health of the province is the golden goose on which all else relies. The government in 1991 was not just debating rights versus dollars, but rights versus hospital beds, rights versus layoffs, rights versus jobs, rights versus education and rights versus social welfare. The requirement to reduce expenditures, and the allocation of the necessary cuts, was undertaken to promote other values of a free and democratic society.
In considering the degree of impairment of equality rights, Binnie found that the impairment was not more than necessary as the cuts for the $24 million would have had to be taken from elsewhere and would likely have caused "even greater grief and social disruption." When asking whether the legislation impairs as little as possible, noted Binnie, the consequences for other social, educational, and economic programs must be taken into account.
Consequently, though the violation was serious and regrettable, Binnie found that it must be justified under section 1 of the Charter.
Read more about this topic: Newfoundland (Treasury Board) V. N.A.P.E.
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