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The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has raised new issues relating to insurance and the home building industry. Following a total project suspension, construction has slowly resumed in Ontario, albeit with reduced crews and strained supply chains. These constraints raise increasingly important questions of whether delays can support extensions for home builders, and what impact home builders […]

In light of the ongoing pandemic, the Federal Government has extended the following COVID-19 supports: Employment Insurance The number of weeks of EI regular benefits available has been extended by up to 24 weeks to a maximum of 50 weeks for claims that are made between September 27, 2020, and September 25, 2021. Canada Recovery […]

British Columbia continues to take steps toward relaxing COVID-19 workplace safety requirements and returning employees to the office, in keeping with recent trends among provincial governments in Canada. On March 11, 2022, the B.C. Provincial Health Officer lifted mandatory face-cover requirements in the workplace. These changes followed the lifting of other COVID-19 workplace safety requirements […]

Workplace vaccination policies adopted as health and safety measures in response to COVID-19, typically contained exemptions for medical or other grounds protected by human rights legislation. The most common “other ground” was creed or religion. In two recent awards, arbitrators found certain exemption requests were based on practices and beliefs that were protected by creed […]

Background The COVID-19 pandemic has caused significant disruptions to the construction industry as a whole. Backlogs in supply, commodity pricing, local market disruption, and an increase in demand and labour costs, have all resulted in a significant rise in construction costs and sometimes construction disruptions.  These disruptions and rising construction costs are critical variables for […]

The Alberta Government has passed legislation amending the Employment Standards Code to provide employees with up to three hours of paid, job-protected leave to get the COVID-19 vaccine. The amendment applies to all full-time and part-time employees regardless of length of employment. The amendment took effect on April 21, 2021. Alberta is the second Canadian […]

On April 27, the BC government’s amendments to the Employment Standards Act were passed providing employees with up to three hours of paid leave to get each dose of their vaccine. The amendments are retroactive to April 19, 2021. Pursuant to the amendments, if requested by their employer, an employee must provide reasonably sufficient proof […]

As discussed in a previous communique, the BC Government amended the Employment Standards Regulation, BC Reg 396/95, to create an unpaid leave for employees who require leave to be vaccinated against COVID-19 or to assist a dependant who is being vaccinated against COVID-19. On April 19, 2021, the BC government introduced amendments to the Employment Standards […]

Many of you are undoubtedly dealing with a wide range of issues related to your workplace. Among the issues that may impact your employees and your obligations as an employer are those relating to the administration of a registered pension plan. The purpose of this post is to briefly highlight the obligations of an employer […]

In our most recent post, we highlighted some of the regulatory relief available to administrators of Ontario registered pension plans as a result of COVID-19. In this post, we highlight the various forms of relief that have been made available, to date, by the pension standards regulators in jurisdictions other than Ontario. British Columbia On […]