Author: Dave Patriarche

Each year my friends at Littler provide an updated list of required postings for Ontario Employers.  These are the documents that MUST be posted to be complaint with the various pieces of legislation.  This is an UPDATE to the original 2022 version out last month.

This update includes links to Ontario government requirements regarding COVID-19, the new mandatory policy on disconnecting from work, the mandatory health screening tool, the Guidance Document regarding proof of vaccination for patrons of specified businesses and organizations etc.

Employers subject to provincial legislation (i.e., not federal employers) that have employees in Ontario often ask about legislative requirements under various employment statutes, including mandatory policies, training and postings under the Employment Standards Act, 2000, the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, 1997, the Occupational Health and Safety Act, the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005, the Pay Equity Act, the Smoke-Free Ontario Act, 2017, and the Working for Workers Act, 2021.  To make this information conveniently available, the Littler Toronto office assembled these requirements in a single publication. 

VIEW PAGE AND DOWNLOAD DOCUMENT HERE

I found another great tool you can share with friends, employees, or really any Canadian resident.  By answering a series of questions (really quick), the program provides you a list of government services and assistance programs you may qualify for.  They range from emergency benefits to WSIB and Trillium high cost drug benefits (should you need them).

Prosper Canada has launched a free online tool intended to simplify the search for government benefits. The tool is meant to help individuals as well as community service providers that help people access income benefits.

Benefits Wayfinder Tool

Get all the details here: https://www.app.grants.gov.on.ca/sbhstp/#/

As COVID continues, we are getting more questions from employers dealing with employees working remotely.  A few things to keep in mind if you have employees working remotely out of the country:

• Employees must maintain provincial health coverage (e.g. OHIP) to be entitled to benefits
  • Employees away for 183+ days/year must request and be granted an extension by OHIP
• Employers are responsible for the safety of their employees at work (OHSA)
  • This can by extension encompass the employee working from home or elsewhere
  • This might extend to ensuring that there are smoke and CO detectors installed and functioning
• Employees working from home could be considered in a WSIB workplace (if mandated)
• Employers are expected to be aware of tax considerations for staff working in a foreign country
  • Employees could possibly face double taxation requirements if working in the US for example.

The issue of WSIB coverage was highlighted in the legal case below.  Though this is Quebec, I think we will see more of these in the coming years as more people work remotely.

If you have questions on staff working remotely (out of Canada), please call us, and consider speaking to your HR professional, and/or accountant/ tax expert, and/ or employment lawyer to see if there are any concerns that could effect you or the employee. 

A few advisors in our association have heard rumours, from plan members (employees,) that being vaccinated could harm them when it comes to applying or claiming for life, disability or health insurance.  I’m not sure where this started, but there is no validity to it, and the insurance companies association (the CLHIA) has put out a statment (below) indicating that is not true.

“Receiving a COVID-19 vaccine will have no effect on the ability to obtain coverage or benefits from life insurance or supplementary health insurance.”

That is what the Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association (CLHIA) has stressed in light of misinformation…

READ ARTICLE

Many clients have had high cost drug claims affect their plans.  I define these as over $10,000/year, with many now costing in the hundreds of thousands of dollars per year (and often for a lifetime).  We have a number of ways of handling these claims from the limited protection of pooling on insured plans, to more extreme measures such as drug caps and exclusionary formularies that push the cost from the employer and employee’s pocket, to the province or patient assistance program.

The Canadian Drug Insurance Pooling Corp. (CDIPC) issues a report each year as to the number and breakdown of these claims.  I’ve clipped a small part of the report below to illustrate the number and cost of claims, and how they have increased in the past 5 years. 

There are 26 million Canadians covered by supplementary health insurance coverage (90% is group plans & 10% individual coverage).  There were almost 28,000 drug claims over $10,000 in 2020 (report clip below).  This equates to about 1 high cost claim for every 930 people.  Because group plans cover spouses and dependent children, we could extrapolate that there are 2.9 people per family (StatsCan), which means that there will be one high cost claim for every 320 employees.  

I’m not trying to scare people by saying “the sky is falling”, but I do want people to be aware that these are no longer “rare” drugs and in fact, many of them are mainstream treatments with some being the drug of choice in treating new patients.  Click on the report below if you’d like to see the entire document, or call us if you have questions.

Each year my friends at Littler provide an updated list of required postings for Ontario Employers.  these are the documents that MUST be posted to be complaint with the various pieces of legislation.

Employers subject to provincial legislation (i.e., not federal employers) that have employees in Ontario often ask about legislative requirements under various employment statutes, including mandatory policies, training and postings under the Employment Standards Act, 2000, the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, 1997, the Occupational Health and Safety Act, the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005, the Pay Equity Act, and the Smoke-Free Ontario Act, 2017.  To make this information conveniently available, the Littler Toronto office assembled these requirements in a single publication.

READ and DOWNLOAD