On one of the top floors of a non-descript building in downtown Toronto, Morneau Shepell Ltd.’s care access centre representatives are fielding intake calls, the first step in helping Canadian employees get help through their employee assistance program. Visually, it’s a typical call-centre environment, but the “magic happens on the phone,” says Lynn Pike, vice-president […]
CIBC, Destination Canada and Via Rail are among employers aligning their employee engagement efforts with the celebration of 150 years since Confederation. Since CIBC is also celebrating 150 years in 2017, it’s tying its own milestone to Canada’s festivities, offering its 44,000 employees a paid day off that they can take near or on their own […]
Over the next decade, employers will have to create workplace programs that recognize employees’ careers beyond retirement, speakers on a panel at an event in Toronto suggested on Wednesday. “Stats Canada still ends [the definition of] working-age Canadian at age 64, and yet we know that people are working well beyond that age,” said Lisa […]
Canadian digital benefits platform League is expanding into the United States, with plans to be in the largest 10 metropolitan areas by the summer of 2018. “We thought, from the beginning, we would be a better fit for the U.S. market,” says League founder Mike Serbinis, citing the need for prevention, health and wellness services given […]
Sun Life Financial is expanding its mental-health plan by piloting a new virtual cognitive behavioural therapy program. Offered in partnership with the University of Regina, the one-year pilot project will first be rolled out for plan sponsors in Ontario and Saskatchewan. The expansion of the program next year will be based on the pilot’s results, […]
A large imbalance in supply and demand and a competitive environment for traditional alternative asset classes are leading institutional investors to look at more creative investment opportunities, including agriculture and farmland, renewable energy and middle-market private credit. During a panel discussion at a CFA Society event in Toronto on Wednesday, Sandra Bosela, managing director and […]
The government of Newfoundland and Labrador has reached a deal with Corner Brook Pulp and Paper Ltd. that aims to secure the future of the company’s two defined benefit pension plans. Provincial officials met with the company Sunday to set out the deal, which will guarantee a letter of credit for Corner Brook Pulp and […]
The federal government’s plan to extend employment insurance parental benefits to 18 months is “misguided” and “sets a bad precedent,” according to a number of employer and employee representatives discussing the changes on Thursday in front of the Senate committee on social affairs, science and technology. “The low EI maternity and parental benefit rate is […]
The British Columbia Supreme Court has rejected an American multi-employer pension plan’s claim for $1.25 billion against a U.S. company’s Canadian subsidiary. The case revolved around the claim that a Canadian subsidiary was on the hook for the unfulfilled pension withdrawal liabilities of one of its parent company’s U.S. subsidiaries. The parent company, Walter Group, includes U.S., […]
The top drivers for using benefits technology include reducing costs (36 per cent), better control or management of benefits data (35 per cent), improving benefits communications (29 per cent) and providing a better experience for employees (27 per cent), according to new research by the business research organization LIMRA. “. . . One of the biggest […]