Aurora Cannabis Inc. has promoted Debra Wilson to chief human resources officer, effective immediately. Since joining the company in June 2017, Wilson was previously Aurora Cannabis’ vice-president and senior vice-president of HR. Before that, she was director of HR at Universal Rail Systems Ltd., vice-president of HR and organizational development at Alberta Pensions Services Corp., senior director of HR and administration […]
Manulife Financial Corp. is launching a medical marijuana program in partnership with Shoppers Drug Mart Corp. this fall. The program, which will be available for participating group benefits plans and individual plans in Canada, will involve specially trained pharmacists from Shoppers Drug Mart at a patient care centre based in Ontario. The pharmacists will be available to […]
Aurora Cannabis Inc. is rolling out a new employee benefits plan that includes coverage of medical marijuana. The plan, which will be administered by Sun Life Financial Inc., will cover the drug for Aurora’s employees and their dependents. “The speed with which Canada’s largest insurers are moving to cover the costs of medical cannabis reflects the increasing […]
Employers and insurers could reduce their pharmaceutical spending by embracing medical cannabis, according to the chief medical officer for a licensed producer of the drug. Dr. Peter Blecher, a pain medicine specialist who works for Starseed Medicinal Inc., told attendees at Benefits Canada’s Chronic Disease at Work conference that cannabis holds a great deal of promise […]
While the federal government has pushed forward the initial target date of July 1 for legalizing recreational cannabis to Oct. 17, employers will still be busy trying to prepare for all of the issues they’ll have to deal with. Benefits Canada has been covering the issue since Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal party first committed to legalizing […]
When it instituted random drug testing last year, the Toronto Transit Commission was eager to ensure its employees knew what it expected of them. To get the message out, the transit authority mailed a handbook last year to the home of every employee and published it online so all workers would be fully aware of […]
More than half (52 per cent) of Canadian employers said they’re concerned or very concerned about the implications of legalized marijuana on the workplace, according to a report by the Conference Board of Canada. A third (33 per cent) of respondents said they’re slightly concerned and 15 per cent said they aren’t concerned at all. Among those concerned, 57 per cent cited workplace […]
From pharmacare to analytics, plan sponsors heard about the big issues on the horizon for their benefits plans at Benefits Canada‘s Calgary Benefits Summit. Presenters at the May 29 event took the audience through a range of topics, including the implications of marijuana legalization and new developments in health-care delivery. And two years after the […]
Markers Financial Inc. is launching a group insurance product that covers medical cannabis on Aug. 15. The company, which is a division of Toronto-based Evergreen Pacific Insurance Corp., will initially roll out an insurance product for individuals, tailored to each person’s requirements without any caps or restrictions based on pre-existing conditions. Read: Reformulary Group to develop cannabis […]
There’s an almost even split among plan sponsors on whether to cover medical marijuana in their health benefits plans, according to the 2018 Sanofi Canada health-care survey. Those for and against coverage were split evenly, with 34 per cent each, while the remaining 32 per cent said they didn’t know or were unsure. Among plan sponsors that […]