Category Archives: Benefits
Retail giant to offer medical marijuana coverage
About 45,000 employees of Shoppers Drug Mart and parent company Loblaws based in Canada will have medical marijuana coverage as part of their work benefits, reports said. An internal memo released last week said this will cover a maximum of … Continue reading
Alberta to Create Fee Guide in Response to Soaring Dental Costs
Alberta’s Health Minister, Sarah Hoffman, announced on December 8, 2016 that it will create a dental fee guide to try to take a bite out of skyrocketing dental costs. This decision was based on results of a provincial review of the … Continue reading
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Wednesday that he will not enact a tax on health and dental benefits.
We lobbied to our MPs on behalf of our clients on this. This is great news. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Wednesday that he will not enact a tax on health and dental benefits, after days of refusing to rule … Continue reading
Federal CPP and EI maximums for 2017
2015 2016 2017 Employment Insurance Maximum weekly benefit 523.36 537.56 542.59 Maximum annual employee contribution 930.60 955.04 836.19 Maximum annual employer contribution 1,302.84 1,337.06 1,169.64 Maximum insurable earnings 49,500.00 50,800.00 51,300.00 Canada Pension Plan Maximum employee contribution to plan 2,479.95 … Continue reading
Change in smoker status criteria – Marijuana users can apply for non-smoker rates
November 3, 2016 – News from Great West Life Effective immediately, plan members who use marijuana won’t automatically be considered smokers on insurance applications, unless they also use tobacco, e-cigarettes or nicotine products. This change applies to all coverage that … Continue reading
Compassionate Care Leave changes
Compassionate care leave is available to employees who provide care for a family member who has a life-threatening illness. Effective January 3, 2016, the federal government made changes that extended the time period of compassionate care leave. These changes have … Continue reading
Pharmacare modernizes Reference Drug Program
Effective June 1, 2016: The Ministry of Health is updating and expanding Pharmacare’s Reference Drug Program, with a focus on meeting the medical needs of patients. The Reference Drug Program is a part of Pharmacare, British Columbia’s public drug plan. … Continue reading
CPP – We’ll pay more
The Canadian Press – Jun 20, 2016 / 7:26 pm | Story: 168736 Both Canadian workers and their employers will soon be on the hook for higher contributions to the Canada Pension Plan after the federal government reached an agreement … Continue reading
Taking Control of rising drug costs
There are several new drugs for cancer and rare diseases coming into the marketplace that fall into the “extremely expensive” category. That is because the pharma pricing model is imperfect and drug prices are difficult to control let alone predict … Continue reading
Summary of changes from the Federal March 2016 Budget HR and Payroll people need to know
1. Reduced waiting period for EI Benefits The first key change is to reduce the waiting period for new recipients from 2 weeks to 1 week effective January 1, 2017. Administrative improvements to speed up actual delivery of benefits. … Continue reading