While roughly half of Canada’s provinces now provide some form of public coverage for fertility treatments such as in-vitro fertilization, the cost is still too prohibitive for many people. Employers are starting to help bridge the gap, “but there’s definitely still room for improvement,” said Tara Wood, principal of Purpose PR and co-founder of Fertility […]
When Priya*, a 38-year-old consultant at a mid-sized professional services firm, realized the timing wasn’t right to have children, she began exploring egg freezing as a way to preserve her options. Like many women balancing career goals, personal circumstances and the realities of fertility, she saw it as a proactive step towards building the future […]
Canadians rely on programs through their workplaces to help ease the financial burden of fertility challenges, according to Michelle Chidley, co-founder and chair at Fertility Alberta Advocacy and Outreach Association and principal at Aisling Communications Inc. In a session supported by EMD Serono Inc. during Benefits Canada’s 2025 Vancouver Benefits Summit, she said a sixth […]
For employers that are designing a financial wellness program, it’s important to provide a user-friendly, educational, and flexible offering that reflects the diversity of employees’ life stages, says Diana McLachlan, chief people officer at Wealthsimple. “Financial security is at the core of people’s lives, and when companies recognize that and invest in it meaningfully, it […]
The U.S. Defense Department will no longer reimburse service members for travel out of state to get reproductive health care, including abortions and fertility treatments, according to a new memo. The directive eliminates a rarely used Biden administration policy enacted in October 2022, after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and more states began […]
The documentation of formal diversity, equity and inclusion policies and approaches is one of the most significant changes to the Canadian workplace over the last decade. Progress of this magnitude seldom comes quickly. Employers are being asked tough questions about their implementation of the goals they’ve laid out — and they’re not always getting great […]
Every time I sit down to write my editorial for our annual Women’s Issue, now in its sixth year, the themes these issues highlight for women feel extremely personal to me. This year is no different. In this year’s Cover Story, on page 14, six women between the ages of 22 and 53 shared how […]
By March 2021, nearly half a million Canadian women who lost their jobs during the pandemic still hadn’t returned to work by the beginning of that year, according to data from the Royal Bank of Canada. It also found more than 200,000 women had slipped into the ranks of the long-term unemployed, a threefold increase […]
When Jessica Charbonneau decided to have a child through assisted reproduction a few years ago, it wasn’t cheap, but her employer helped shoulder some of the costs. Charbonneau, a 36-year-old student affairs case manager at the University of Toronto’s Mississauga campus, started with intrauterine insemination, spending a total of $15,000 for six rounds. The university’s […]
U.S. employers are increasing their family and caregiving benefits in 2023, according to a new survey by the Society for Human Resource Management. The survey, which polled more than 4,000 employers, found a quarter (25 per cent) said they cover infertility treatments and in vitro fertilization, while five per cent cover egg freezing for non-medical […]