Pension plans administrators in Alberta’s private sector will have another year to put a governance policy in place. Under Bill 10, published in 2012, the provincial government set out a number of changes that would allow plan administrators to more easily develop pension plans that meet the needs of employers and employees. As part of […]
BASF Canada Inc. is enhancing its compassionate and bereavement policies for about 550 non-unionized employees across Canada. Effective Jan. 1, 2017, the chemicals company will change its bereavement policy to provide up to 10 paid days in the event of the death of an immediate family member and up to five paid days for close […]
Pensioners and members of the Northern Transportation Co. Ltd.’s pension plan reached a settlement with the company on Friday that will see all special payments, which had been suspended since August, paid into the fund. It provides the fund with a further $1.7 million, says Simon Archer, a lawyer at Koskie Minsky LLP, which represented […]
Brookfield Asset Management has launched a wholly-owned subsidiary called Brookfield Annuity Co., the first company in Canada to specialize in providing group annuity solutions for de-risking defined benefit pension plans. Compared to global annuity markets, particularly Britain, Canada has been a bit slower to follow this trend, according to Paul Forestell, president and chief executive […]
The Financial Services Commission of Ontario has said it expects to perform an on-site examination of every pension plan in the province over the next five years. So what do plan sponsors need to know to prepare for the regulator’s knock on the door? First of all, the examinations aren’t random, said Randy Bauslaugh, practice […]
A House of Commons committee is recommending the government look for ways to deal with the solvency of Canada Post’s defined benefit pension plan, including a suggestion to examine the feasibility of adopting a shared-risk model. “Certainly for a large plan like Canada Post, a target-benefit or shared-risk model would provide a good alternative to […]
Home Hardware Stores Ltd. hosted a series of health fairs in November for more than 2,000 employees in Alberta, Nova Scotia and Ontario to raise awareness of the health benefits available to them. While some of these locations have held health fairs in the past, this year marked the first time the organization included reward […]
Shopify Inc. has been named the best place to work in Canada in 2017 by jobs and recruiting marketplace Glassdoor. Its annual list of the best places to work honours workplaces across Canada, the United States, Britain, France and Germany. In Canada, the list showcases employers with 1,000 or more employees, ranking their workplace on […]
Global institutional investors are expecting to make more asset allocation changes in the next couple of years than they did in 2012 and 2014, according to a new survey by Fidelity Investments. The anticipated shifts include alternative investments, domestic fixed income and cash. Globally, 72 per cent of respondents said they would increase their allocations […]
GE Canada has relaunched its online retirement tool to help employees understand how the organization supports them in saving for retirement and how they can optimize their financial picture. The online tool, which the company initially rolled out a year ago, allows employees to combine all of their savings plans in one place so they […]