Canadian Payroll Reporter

5 Canadian HR Reporter, a Thomson Reuters business 2014 Legislative Roundup CPR CPR | June 2014 June 2014 Critically Ill Child Care Leave, will allow eligible employees to take up to 37 weeks off work to provide care or support to a critically ill child. A third leave, Crime-related Child Death or Disappearance Leave, will allow eligible employees to take up to 52 weeks off work if their child goes missing as a result of a suspected crime and up to 104 weeks off work if their child dies as a result of a suspected crime. The leaves will be in addition to current leaves allowed un- der the Act for family medical leave and personal emergency leave. Reminder: Minimum wage increased June 1 Effective June 1, the Ontario government raised the province's gen- eral minimum wage rate from $10.25 per hour to $11. For liquor servers, the rate increased from $8.90 an hour to $9.55. The rate for students rose from $9.60 an hour to $10.30. The student rate applies to students who are under 18 and working fewer than 28 hours per week or more than 28 hours during school vacation. Northwest Territories National Aboriginal Day a statutory holiday Saturday, June 21, is a statutory holiday in the Northwest Territo- ries. The holiday celebrates National Aboriginal Day, which rec- ognizes the contribution of Aboriginal Peoples to the Northwest Territories and Canada. Prince Edward Island Reminder: Minimum wage increased June 1 Effective June 1, the minimum wage rate in the province rose from $10 per hour to $10.20. The rate will go up again on Oct. 1 to $10.35. Québec National Holiday is June 24 Tuesday, June 24, National Holiday, is a statutory holiday in Que- bec. All employees in the province are entitled to the holiday. Saskatchewan Province enacts new employment act The province's new Saskatchewan Employment Act took effect on April 29. It consolidates 12 labour-related acts, including The La- bour Standards Act, into one piece of legislation. It contains em- ployment standards, occupational health and safety and labour relations, as well as related legislation. In addition to consolidating the laws, the act amends various provisions. It makes some changes to employment standards, including the following: •allowing overtime hours to be banked; •allowing employers and employees to agree to average work hours over one, two, three or four weeks under modified work arrange- ments; •reducing the eligibility period for maternity, parental and adop- tion leave from 20 weeks of service to 13 weeks; •adding new leaves for critically ill children, children who have dis- appeared or died as a result of a crime, organ donation, citizen- ship ceremonies and for running for political office; •indexing the province's minimum wage rate to inflation; •allowing employers to provide employees with electronic pay statements as long as the employee is able to print a copy of the statement; and •requiring employers to keep records that cover the most recent five years of an employee's employment and, if employment ends, keeping the records for two years after the last day of work. The provincial government has set up the website www. saskatchewan.ca/work to provide more information about the act. pension plan or an RRSP or a tax credit like the CPP?" Clausen says. "The same thing with bene- fits. If you are going to cover low- income individuals, will it result in offsets of other income-tested benefits?" There are also questions around the mandatory nature of the plan and how it could im- pact employees who switch jobs within Ontario or who move to another province. "That will add to the complex- ity because you will have indi- viduals who are in or out if they change employment between somebody who is in (and some- body who's) out," he says. Another unknown is whether employees would be allowed to opt out. "If there is ability for a compa- ny to opt out if they have a com- parable plan, is there ability for an individual to opt out if they prefer something else?" Clausen asks. Enhanced CPP a better move? He says the ORPP has poten- tial, but his first choice would be for the federal and provincial governments to agree to a mod- est enhancement to the CPP. "It definitely would be bet- ter on a national basis without a doubt," Clausen says. "If that's not achievable, do you do noth- ing or do you do the best you can achieve?" Ontario is not the only juris- diction interested in a provincial- ly run plan. Manitoba and Prince Edward Island have taken part in an advisory group Ontario set up to design the ORPP. There are reports other provinces are dis- cussing the issue with Ontario, although it is not known whether other jurisdictions would contin- ue with the plan on their own if a new Ontario government opted not to pursue it. Clausen says it would be bet- ter to have more than one prov- ince implementing a pension plan like this as long as all of the provincial plans are similar. "The CPP is meant to cover everybody, all employees, all workers. That doesn't mean there isn't an offering or an op- portunity or a plan design that could be targeted to employ- ees without a pension plan as a supplement to the CPP. Again, the more consistent you could have a plan, the better. If you are going to have this type of plan, you wouldn't really want to see a completely different plan design in every single province." Whether or not the ORPP is implemented, Clausen says it is important that governments are discussing pension issues and considering options to help meet retirement income needs. Clausen says Canada has a strong retirement income sys- tem with programs such as the CPP/QPP, Old Age Security, Guaranteed Income Supple- ment, employer pension plans and individual savings. "We have a good selection of different tools that work to help people meet different needs," he says. "Having a discussion about expansion of CPP or (the) On- tario plan is a positive. There is room for all of these things. We are not in a retirement savings crisis today, but that also doesn't mean we don't do anything. Be- ing proactive helps make sure that we don't end up with one." Other provinces could join Ontario's pension from PENSIONS on page 3 from LEGISLATIVE ROUNDUP on page 1

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