Home Ryan Murphy

Learn how technology fits into the benefits equation at the Benefits and Pension Summit

As the workplace undergoes rapid transformation amid automation and technological advancements, plan sponsors will need to re-imagine the crossroads between new technology and employee benefits. The issues will be a key focus of panel discussion at Benefits Canada’s 2018 Benefits and Pension Summit on April 16, 2018, at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Toronto. “I think what we’re trying to […]

  • March 2, 2018 September 13, 2019
  • 08:45

Budget includes end to health and welfare trusts by 2021

The federal budget has proposed the end of health and welfare trusts, suggesting either a conversion to employee life and health trusts or a windup by the end of 2020. While the government added rules in regards to employee life and health trusts to the Income Tax Act in 2010, the Canada Revenue Agency has been providing administrative positions about […]

  • February 28, 2018 September 13, 2019
  • 16:30

B.C. employers to consider benefits plan design in light of new health tax

B.C. plan sponsors will have lots of questions to consider as the provincial government prepares to introduce a new employer health tax. “It’s going to be interesting, because the employers, obviously, are going to be looking at that employer health tax as a cost of doing business,” says Avinash Maniram, a partner and senior consultant at PBI […]

  • February 28, 2018 September 13, 2019
  • 15:30

Saskatchewan reinstates tax exemption on health premiums

Saskatchewan’s announcement that it’s reinstating its provincial sales tax exemption for life and health insurance premiums is welcome news for plan sponsors in the province.  Debra Wiegers, a benefits consultant and head of the group benefits division at Saskatoon-based Wiegers Financial & Benefits, says calculations conducted by some of her employer clients show savings of between […]

  • February 27, 2018 September 13, 2019
  • 15:45

Accenture rolls out inclusive leadership, unconscious bias training for new staff

Accenture is making inclusive leadership and unconscious bias training mandatory for all new employees, with the aim to complete the training for its entire workforce by 2019. The training is being rolled out as a pilot program, beginning with Accenture’s technology hiring managers and employees who recently joined the company through an acquisition. “The next phase is to do it with all […]

  • February 26, 2018 September 13, 2019
  • 09:00

Boosted by public equities, OMERS posts 11.5% return for 2017

The Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System saw its net investment return rise to 11.5 per cent at the end of 2017, compared to 10.3 per cent at the end of 2016 and a benchmark of 7.3 per cent. Its investments generated almost $10 billion in net investment income during the year, with net assets increasing to $95 billion […]

  • February 23, 2018 September 13, 2019
  • 11:00

New group formed to oppose guideline on advisor compensation disclosure

A new group has emerged to oppose the Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association’s new guideline around disclosing compensation paid to intermediaries in group benefits and group retirement services. The National Coalition of Benefit Advisors has taken shape over the past six weeks, according to Robert Taylor, managing director of Vancouver-based TRG Group Benefits & Pensions […]

  • February 21, 2018 September 13, 2019
  • 10:26

Almost a million Canadians cut food, heat spending to pay for drugs

Almost one million Canadians cut spending on necessities such as food and heating to afford prescription drugs in 2016, according to a report by researchers at the University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University, McMaster University and the University of Toronto. The report, which used data from Statistics Canada’s 2016 Canadian community health survey, also found 1.69 […]

  • February 13, 2018 September 13, 2019
  • 09:00

B.C. to reduce prescription drug deductibles for low-income earners

British Columbia’s plan to eliminate or reduce prescription drug deductibles for low-income earners could also lead to lower drug costs for plan sponsors in the province. While Nick Gubbay, a principal and group benefits consultant at Eckler Ltd. in Vancouver, says the impact is likely to be most material for group plans providing benefits to […]

  • February 12, 2018 September 13, 2019
  • 10:15

A look at video health-care visits as an option for plan sponsors

It’s a familiar situation: An employee is feeling ill at work but is too busy to leave for a medical appointment. Or perhaps the employee’s child wakes up with a sore throat and needs to see a doctor. New apps and services are emerging to aid in those situations. Video health conferencing and telemedicine allow […]

  • February 9, 2018 March 17, 2021
  • 08:55