An employee is considered truly engaged in her work if she says good things about the company, has a desire to stay with the company and will strive to “go that extra mile,” said Hewitt Associates consultant Tim Clarke at the HRPAO Conference and Trade Show in Toronto last week. A number of key drivers, […]
Cancer Care Ontario’s(CCO)latest initiative will have an impact on private drug plans, said Ellen Aquilina of ESI Canada at The Ontario Club in Toronto today. Under CCO’s New Drug Funding Program(NDFP), created in 1995, drugs were administered and funded by the CCO. In 1997, the program was expanded to include newer, more expensive IV cancer […]
Pension plans, whether defined benefit(DB), defined contribution(DC), hybrid or multi-employer, are affected by corporate transactions, said Mitch Frazer, senior associate with Torys law firm in Toronto, at the Ontario Club today. Whether it’s a share or asset transaction, safeguarding pension plans through the transaction is paramount. In a share transaction, the purchaser buys all the […]
It’s good news for some defined benefit(DB)pension plans. According to estimates from Towers Perrin, Fortune 100 companies are just over 100% funded in aggregate at year-end. This increased from the 91% aggregate funded level at year-end 2005. The firm estimates that the 79 Fortune 100 companies that have DB plans hold an aggregate pension funding […]
Canadians will expect to take various medications throughout their lives, but they’d rather not cough up to pay for them. In the Pollara-Health Care in Canada Survey, released before the end of last year, 89% of Canadians agree “employersponsored plans should pay for any drug that patients and their healthcare provider agree is the most […]
When a shareholder obtains a stake in a company that is not performing to its potential, that shareholder has entered the world of activist investing. The company may be rundown, mismanaged and/or undervalued, but as a stakeholder, that shareholder can typically influence managements and boards to effect change and increase value in the company. “We […]
Delta Air Lines has received the green light to end its pilots’ pensions by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation(PBGC). The airline said it needed to terminate the pension plan to emerge from bankruptcy next spring. The PBGC will take over the airline’s pensions and pay pilots part of the benefits they expected. According to the […]
Pensioners and plan sponsors may have been ready to sound the alarm this past Halloween when Finance Minister Jim Flaherty announced a tax on income trusts. The tax will be effective in 2011 for existing trusts and 2007 for new trusts. Making the front pages of the major national newspapers, the income trust tax alarm […]
The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec will invest $2 million in Maetta Sciences Inc. The investment will aid the metal manufacturing company with its technology for the industrial sector, including aeronautics and medical products. The Boucherville, Quebec-based firm has developed a new technology for the manufacturing of metal parts by powder injection molding […]
Although Canadians may not have much luck in keeping New Year’s resolutions, that luck may change if they’re job searching. The latest Robert Half International Financial Hiring Index indicates that financial executives will continue to hire through the first quarter of 2007, but at a slower rate than the last quarter of 2006. The survey […]