In October 2017, De Beers Canada senior management flew to the company’s remote Victor diamond mine near Attawapiskat, Ont., to tell its employees some tough but not unexpected news: the mine was slated to close in the first quarter of 2019. When the fly-in, fly-out operation opened in 2008, the company forecasted it would last […]
Mercer is appoints Dr. Andrew Halpert as clinical innovation leader for health in the U.S. and Canada. In the role, Halpert will be responsible for leading Mercer’s clinical consulting offerings and health strategy development. With 30 years of experience in the industry, he was previously the senior director for clinical and network solutions at Collective Health and […]
Benefits Canada is proud to announce the finalists of the 2019 Workplace Benefits Awards. This year’s entries set records in many categories, with a total of nearly 100 nominations. The winners will be announced at a luncheon event on Oct. 17 at the Arcadian Loft in Toronto. Buy your tickets to this not-to-miss event today. This year’s finalists […]
Canadian public companies are increasing the discount rates they use for their defined benefit pension plans, according to a new survey by Morneau Shepell Ltd. The survey of 90 Canadian public companies found the median discount rate — the interest rate the pension plan uses to determine the current value of its anticipated future benefits […]
When employees at Accenture begin a gender transition, they have access to a comprehensive suite of benefits. In 2011, the global consulting firm became one of the first companies in Canada to cover costs related to transitioning. Zoya Zayler, inclusion and diversity lead for Canada, says the organization worked with its benefits provider to design a fulsome and customizable […]
Three managing general agencies in the benefits, pension and investment industries are combining forces. The firms — Financial Horizons Group, headquartered in Kitchener, Ont.; Torce Financial Group Inc., based in the greater Toronto area; and Vance Financial Group Inc. from Vancouver — will join forces to build on the strengths of their operations and advisor networks, according to […]
When analyzing the likelihood of a trade war means keeping one eye on Twitter, the global backdrop for risk becomes more troubling. “You definitely start by taking that global temperature — looking at growth, inflation, interest rates, commodity prices, currencies, event risk,” says Rob Hall, institutional portfolio manager on the emerging markets debt team at […]
On the same day Keith Dixon began working at the University of Victoria, the campus gained another new addition: its combination pension plan. Introduced in July 1968, the plan is fairly unique in the world of Canadian pensions. It operates on a defined contribution basis, with the university and plan members each contributing. But when […]
Two-thirds (65 per cent) of plan members said they’d be willing to receive health-related information from the insurer managing their workplace benefits plan based on how they personally use their benefits, according to the 2019 Sanofi Canada health-care survey. “People value personalization to help them move forward and understand what’s available to them that fits […]
The employment landscape has changed drastically in recent years. With new technologies frequently being introduced into the workplace and older systems slowly being phased out, there has been a transformation of both the type of jobs available and the way we interact within them. New technologies have created more efficient methods of communication and provided […]