The City of Toronto is planning to bring the coronavirus vaccine to high-risk workplaces in an effort to stop the spread of the disease, the city’s mayor said Monday as pressure mounted on the province to vaccinate essential workers. Mayor John Tory says the city is currently developing the details of the plan, which will […]
Canada’s defined benefit pension plans’ funded positions continue to improve in 2021, ending the first quarter at their highest levels in more than 20 years, according to Mercer Canada’s pension health index. It found solvency ratios increased from 114 per cent at the end of 2020 to 124 per cent at the end of March 2021, with the median solvency ratio […]
Job-protected leave has been written into British Columbia’s Employment Standards Act to give workers time off to get their coronavirus vaccinations. Labour Minister Harry Bains says the safeguard will ensure that no one will lose their job if they need time away to get vaccinated. The changes allow part-time and full-time workers to take as much […]
Employers are facing a growing number of legal considerations as they continually adapt policies amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, according to a recent webinar hosted by Hicks Morley Hamilton Stewart Storie. In Ontario, there’s been a substantial increase in workplace inspections through that province’s occupational health and safety act, said Ted Kovacs, a partner at […]
Canada Goose Inc. is the latest employer to provide employees with paid leave to receive a coronavirus vaccine. The clothing manufacturer, which is headquartered in Toronto with offices and factories across North America and stores around the world, is offering all its staff up to four hours paid leave to get vaccinated, as well as the […]
Despite adjustments to operations and investments during the coronavirus pandemic, Canada’s major pension plan leaders are maintaining a long-term view by looking ahead to a post-pandemic world. But we’re not out of the woods yet as Canada, and the rest of the world, are likely many months away from reaching herd immunity and thus life […]
Torstar Corp. is permanently closing the physical office spaces for the Ontario-based Waterloo Region Record and St. Catharines Standard newspapers and all staff of those news outlets will work remotely on a permanent basis. The decision is a way to “reduce office space leasing costs,” says a spokesperson. The announcement by the publisher of the Toronto Star, and several […]
The federal Liberals are facing calls from some of the hardest-hit businesses in the coronavirus pandemic to extend emergency-relief programs beyond June. The government has targeted June 5 for an end to the federal wage and rent subsidies and this week extended applications for a popular loan program to the same time. The idea is […]
In its 2021 budget on Wednesday, the Ontario government said it’s requiring pension plan administrators to calculate and report their plan’s claim exposure to the pension benefits guarantee fund, to support the protection of benefits into the future. A review of the fund, discussed in the province’s 2020 budget, found there was a need for […]
While the coronavirus pandemic is continuing to shape global markets following a tumultuous 2020, institutional investors are looking beyond the crisis, says Rob Almeida, portfolio manager and global investment strategist at MFS Investment Management Canada Ltd. “It’s no different how we thought about it last year, it’s just that the environment has changed. It’s about […]