Discretionary grant — services of exceptional value to Canada (s.5(4))

CA-SPC-04 is the third, narrowest-used limb of the discretionary special grant in section 5(4) of the Citizenship Act, R.S.C. 1985, c. C-29: a grant of Canadian citizenship made by the Minister, in discretion, 'to reward services of an exceptional value to Canada' (s.5(4), verbatim, as of 2026-06-01). It is a stand-alone exception to the ordinary grant machinery: it can confer citizenship 'despite any other provision of this Act', meaning it can operate without the s.5(1) permanent-residence, physical-presence, tax, language, or knowledge requirements. It is fully discretionary ('the Minister may, in his or her discretion'), rare, and decided case-by-case. The same s.5(4) provision houses two other limbs (statelessness — CA-SPC-01; special and unusual hardship — CA-SPC-02); CA-SPC-04 is the exceptional-services limb only. It is administered federally by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) under the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration. There is no published self-service application stream for this limb; it is exercised by the Minister, not claimed as of right by an applicant.

There is no published fee dedicated to the s.5(4) exceptional-services grant in the IRCC fee list as of 2026-06-01 (IRCC fee list date-modified 2026-04-30). The fee list enumerates the standard citizenship fees: adult (18+) grant CAD 653.00 total (CAD 530.00 processing + CAD 123.00 Right of Citizenship Fee, the RCF having risen to CAD 123 effective 2026-03-31); minor (under 18) grant CAD 100.00; citizenship certificate / proof CAD 75.00; resume citizenship (18+) CAD 530.00; renounce citizenship (standard s.9) CAD 100.00. The RCF is the fee tied to actually acquiring citizenship and, where a discretionary grant results in the person becoming a citizen, the RCF would in principle attach as it does to other adult grants; however, no s.5(4)-specific fee line is published, so any fee treatment for an exceptional-services grant should be confirmed with IRCC rather than asserted. No figure here is generated from training data; all amounts cited are from the IRCC fee list and the RCF-increase notice.

The operative provision is Citizenship Act s.5(4): 'Despite any other provision of this Act, the Minister may, in his or her discretion, after having reviewed a person's particular circumstances, grant citizenship to any person to alleviate cases of statelessness or of special and unusual hardship or to reward services of an exceptional value to Canada.' (Justice Laws consolidation, date-modified 2026-05-28; dcterms.modified 2025-12-15.) CA-SPC-04 relies on the third disjunctive ground — 'to reward services of an exceptional value to Canada'. The controlling statute overall is the Citizenship Act, R.S.C. 1985, c. C-29 (short title s.1), administered by IRCC. The s.5(4) wording has not been altered by the recent amending instruments to s.5: Bill C-6 (S.C. 2017, c. 14) added the 'statelessness' limb but left 'exceptional value' untouched, and Bill C-3 (S.C. 2025, c. 5, in force 2025-12-15 per OIC SI/2025-129) amended s.5(5) and the descent/adoption provisions but did not change s.5(4). The exceptional-services ground predates C-6 and is the longest-standing limb of the special grant.