The head of the International Monetary Fund says that the global economy has started on a long climb to stronger growth with prospects looking a little better than four months ago. IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said Tuesday that global economic activity suffered an unprecedented fall in the spring when 85 per cent of the […]
MindBeacon Group is launching a digital mental-health option to support all Canadians through heightened anxiety and stress related to the coronavirus pandemic. The organization found nearly half (46 per cent) of people starting therapy since the beginning of the pandemic via its Beacon digital platform indicated anxiety as their primary mental-health concern, which was up by 12 per cent when […]
While many Canadians panicked and stocked up on toilet paper when a global pandemic was declared in March, most capital accumulation plan members stayed calm enough not to make fund changes, according to a webinar hosted by the Association of Canadian Pension Management on Thursday. “[We] found, overall, plan members appear to be staying the […]
Defined benefit pension plans that were on route to de-risking when the coronavirus hit are facing a difficult road ahead in the current lower-for-longer interest rate environment. However, a new de-risking option is available for plan sponsors that didn’t exist in the wake of the global financial crisis: merging with the Colleges of Applied Arts […]
Employer health-care costs will rise in 2021 for several reasons related to the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new report by Willis Towers Watson. With many employees deferring medical visits due to lockdown measures and fear of contracting the coronavirus, health-care costs for U.S. employers are expected to be between 3.3 and 8.8 per cent lower in 2020 than […]
The funded positions of Canadian defined benefit pension plans continued to recover in the third quarter of 2020, but major risks lie ahead, according to both Mercer Canada’s latest pension health index and Aon’s latest median solvency ratio survey. Mercer’s index, which represents the solvency ratio of a hypothetical DB pension plan, increased from 101 […]
At IBM Canada Ltd, if an employee joins a meeting, but doesn’t turn on their camera, the solution is simple: don’t worry about it. This is one attitude the company has formalized during the coronavirus pandemic to safeguard the mental well-being of its staff, says Katherine Faichnie, the technology company’s director of human resources. From a technology perspective, […]
The Liberal government is promising to finally spend $10 billion that has sat in the accounts of its infrastructure financing agency for years, hoping to create thousands of post-pandemic jobs. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the three-year plan would create 60,000 jobs by expanding access to high-speed internet, building out agricultural irrigation infrastructure in western […]
Annual inflation in the 19-country eurozone sagged further below zero in September, bolstering expectations that the European Central Bank will add to its emergency stimulus efforts to help cushion the impact of the pandemic on the economy. The consumer price index was down 0.3 per cent in September, even lower than the minus 0.2 per […]
The coronavirus pandemic led to a sharp decrease in people visiting health professionals and filing claims, resulting in an estimated savings of $4.8 billion for Canadian private insurers between March 15 and June 15, according to a new report by insurance comparison platform Hellosafe.ca. The report, which used historic data sourced from the Canadian Life and Health […]