SupersonicMax said:
			
		
	
	
		
		
			Quite a substantial pay raise and back pay...  7.5k after tax backpay and 8k a year extra.
Edited for typo!
		
		
	 
While I appreciate any raise, call me less than overwhelmed.  
The increase in the cost of living between our last pay raise and this one averaged 1.53% a year (
Bank of Canada Inflation Calculator - 2013 to 2017) for a net result of a 6.28% increase in the cost of living against a base increase of just 5% and just about breaking even once the Military Factor is added in.  We still fell behind and considering this has just "caught us up" as of 1 Apr 17, we're going to keep falling behind as there is nothing in place for 1 Apr 18...and we can pretty much assume that like the last "x" number of times this has happened, it's going to be another 2-3 years before we get that one...
There shouldn't be a huge chunk of back pay, we should have had that money in our pockets well before now.  Like it or not, there is a cost to that, if for nothing less than the deferred tax implications of suddenly having a significant, unforeseen, spike in your income.  As alluded to, for people who are getting several tranches of back pay for various reasons, this is having a pretty significant impact on the money they are actually able to benefit from.  For folks paying spousal or child support, this could also result in them suddenly owing a significant amount for those issues, depending on the terms of their agreements/settlements.
I'm personally pretty tired of the "retroactivity" on everything that has crept into our pay and allowances over the past 10-15 years, including getting nailed with retroactive cancellations or decreases in allowances resulting in monies owing back to the Crown through no fault of the members.