Canadian Payroll Reporter

THE COMPLIANCE AND STRATEGY SOURCE FOR PAYROLL AND HR PROFESSIONALS IN THIS ISSUE FEDERAL BUDGET Canadian Payroll Reporter editor Sheila Brawn attended the federal budget lockup in Ottawa and uncovered the biggest changes impacting payroll . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 LEGISLATIVE ROUNDUP British Columbia moving ahead on Pooled Registered Pension Plans; Minimum wage rising in 3 jurisdictions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 ASK AN EXPERT Annie Chong, manager of Carswell's Payroll Hotline, discusses the rules around changing employee pay periods . . . . . . . . 7 Indexing minimum wage rates becoming more p opular A growing number of governments across North America are using the CPI to adjust minimum wage rates | BY SHEILA BRAWN | MORE EMPLOYERS in Canada may have to get used to yearly minimum wage changes as a growing number of gov- ernments look to annually index their minimum wage rates. Alberta, Nova Scotia and Yukon al- ready tie their minimum wage to eco- nomic indicators such as the consumer continued on page 2 MARCH 2014 PM #40065782 Feds to stop issuing SIN cards this month Employers will need to ensure documents, procedures reflect the change | BY SHEILA BRAWN | AT THE END of this month, the federal government will stop producing and is- suing plastic social insurance number (SIN) cards. Instead, Service Canada will provide a letter advising applicants of their social insurance number. The government announced plans to phase out the use of the plastic cards two years ago. It said the move would help to modernize the way the federal government does busi- ness and save money. It's estimated Ottawa will save about $1.5 mil- lion a year by no longer providing plastic cards. Government officials also point to the SIN card as a problem for fraud and iden- tity theft. By stealing a SIN card, a thief can get access to bank accounts and to government benefits under programs such as the Canada Pension Plan (CPP), employment insurance and Old Age Se- curity. The cards don't have any security features, such as a photo. "The social insurance number card is simply a piece of plastic with your name and number punched into it and some ink. An enterprising grade 12 student could do it in his or her parent's base- ment without the parents even knowing. It doesn't provide any security. Moving away from reliance on the card provides benefits from an identity theft perspec- tive," Peter Boyd, senior director general with Service Canada's Integrated Chan- nel Management, told a House of Com- mons committee on finance. Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) has long recommended individuals not carry their SIN card with them and instead store it in a safe place. But the department says many Canadi- ans have continued to keep it in their wallets. It is likely this will continue for some time since the move to end the pro- duction of plastic cards does not affect current SIN cards. They will continue to be valid. The phasing out of the plastic cards will not only affect people who apply for social insur- ance numbers, but also employers who have made it a policy to ask new hires to show their SIN card. "In some cases, employers may have to make changes to their documenta- tion, guidelines, application forms, pro- cedures and agreements where they ref- erence the SIN card, to make reference only to the SIN," said Jordan Sinclair, a media relations spokesperson with ESDC. It is the number that payroll needs for year-end and Record of Employment reporting, not the card. Although some employers may be used to asking for the SIN card as a means of verifying an employee's iden- tity, Sinclair says ESDC does not consid- er it to be an identity document. ESDC advises employers to ask for other pieces of identification rather than the SIN card The physical SIN card has been a problem for fraud and identity theft. Continued on page 6

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