One Friday morning in early August of 1994, the phone rang at a rented cottage in Rockport, Mass. Bruce Gowans, then vice-president of group underwriting at Confederation Life Insurance Company, answered. It was Bruce’s father, who’d just heard on the news that Confederation Life was in liquidation. Gowans knew the insurer was experiencing difficulties—he was […]
According to the World Health Organization, as of 2011, mental illness affects 20% of Canadians in the workplace, and mental illness costs Canada $51 billion a year (according to 2010 statistics from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health). Employers certainly know mental health in the workplace is a cause for concern, but how do […]
Lorna Willner, Steam Whistle’s HR manager, talks about the perks that keep employees interested. Explain Steam Whistle’s profit sharing and shareholder plans. Profit sharing is for everybody…even if, for the year, an employee does just 12 shifts, he or she would still be eligible to participate but on a pro-rated basis. Once an employee has […]
On March 22, 2000, Steam Whistle Brewing’s first bottles of Pilsner rattled along the production line. “Since that time, we’ve just worked on building a culture of respect here,” says Greg Taylor, who co-founded the brewery along with Cam Heaps. “Individuals can come to work and feel they can make a contribution. It’s a fairly […]
More than 100 people attended the 11th annual Solutions in Drug Plan Management conference presented by Drugstore Canada and Benefits Canada yesterday in Toronto. Pharmacists, plan sponsors, consultants and recordkeepers came together to discuss the theme for this year’s conference: Opportunities in a New Healthcare Landscape. Peter Zawadzki, a professional affairs executive with Pharmasave National, […]
As Brett Gallagher drifted in and out of sleep in front of the TV in his hotel room on March 11, 2011, he vaguely remembered hearing something about Japan and an earthquake and tsunami. The next day, as he watched his sons play baseball at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla., where he was visiting […]
New Brunswick’s public servants can feel a little more comfortable about their pensions. On Tuesday, the New Brunswick Investment Management Corp. reported a 10.4% gross rate of return for the 2010/11 fiscal year. The annual real return for the fund since the corporation was launched in 1996 has been 4.74%, according to its CEO, John […]
We’ve seen consolidation across a range of service providers in recent years, including insurers and custodians. Now it’s the consultants’ turn. Towers Perrin and Watson Wyatt joined forces to form Towers Watson (14,000 employees globally), completing the transaction in January 2010. And in October 2010, Aon Corporation completed its acquisition of Hewitt Associates to create […]
Who knew that a drop in the Dow on May 6, 2010, would lead to a T-shirt emblazoned with “I survived the crash of 2:45 pm.”? James Allen, head of capital markets policy at the CFA Institute in Charlottesville, Va., certainly didn’t. But he found out about the “Flash Crash” soon enough. Allen was on […]
Sponsors of DB pension plans continue to face the same old struggle: managing risk. That was the main theme of the DB track at Benefits Canada’s 2011 Benefits & Pension Summit. DB experts examined risk in detail and also provided attendees with perspectives on investment strategies relating to currency management and emerging and frontier markets. […]