While today marks the one-year anniversary of Ottawa reaching an agreement with most of the provinces to expand the Canada Pension Plan, the future of the Quebec Pension Plan remains up in the air. While the enhanced CPP will take effect in 2019, there’s still uncertainty around what Quebec will do with the QPP. The […]
The Ontario Public Service Employees Union is now offering its employees $3,000 to spend on medical marijuana per year. Around 400 employees, their spouses and dependants must get a doctor’s prescription and obtain the cannabis from legally authorized vendors, but they’ll face no limitations when it comes to what medical conditions are eligible for the […]
A new technology platform has entered Canada’s benefits and human resources industry, adding to the multiple disruptors already active in the sector. On Wednesday, Rise People Inc. launched an online platform that allows employers to integrate and manage their human resource, benefits and payroll functions. “After observing how the limitations of standalone HR software solutions […]
The federal government has introduced a new program aimed at simplifying employers’ recruitment processes for high-skilled temporary workers from abroad. The Global Talent Stream program, which is part of Canada’s temporary foreign worker program, speeds up the processing time for work permits by reducing it to two weeks. “I think [the program] is excellent because [employers] have many gaps […]
Active investors that are increasing their exposure to emerging markets should take a prudent approach on which businesses to allocate their money to, attendees at a presentation organized by Fidelity Investments heard on Thursday. While emerging markets have performed favourably with commodity prices and exchange rates stabilizing in recent months, they’re still vulnerable to recurring risks of […]
The OPSEU Pension Trust is boosting its efforts to internalize the management of certain assets by launching an in-house trading floor on Wednesday. The move to internalization provides the pension plan with many benefits, says Hugh O’Reilly, president and chief executive officer at OPTrust. “By being in the market in an active way, it gives us better […]
Nearly a third (32 per cent) of Canadians don’t believe government benefits will still be available when they retire, according to new research by Natixis Global Asset Management. Its survey of 300 Canadians found 78 per cent expect to fund their own retirement income and that a majority are taking personal responsibility for their own […]
Employer appetite for investing in wellness appears to be waning, delegates heard at the Toronto launch of the 2017 Sanofi Canada health-care survey. Representatives from the benefits industry, who also served on the survey’s advisory board, were surprised and concerned by these findings as they shared insights from the research at the event on Tuesday […]
By 2050, the six countries with the world’s largest pension systems will have a combined funding gap of $224 trillion largely due to demographic trends, according to a new study by the World Economic Forum. The report found Australia, Canada, Japan, the Netherlands, Britain and the United States will face significant challenges in providing for their […]
Younger employees are more willing to reduce or eliminate a traditional health benefit to cover the cost of a wellness benefit compared to their older counterparts, according to new research by Accompass Inc. The research, which surveyed 1,623 employees and 183 employers, found 45 per cent of generation Z employees (ages 18 to 24) and […]