The workplace can play an important role in helping to normalize type 1 diabetes for employees living with the condition and those whose children may be diagnosed, said Michael Vallis, psychologist and associate professor of family medicine at Dalhousie University, during a session supported by Sanofi Canada during Benefits Canada’s 2026 Chronic Disease at Work […]
Bell Canada’s defined benefit and defined contribution pension plans are both overseen by the same pension committee. The meeting cadences differ, but the committee leans on its DB knowledge to make sure it’s addressing similar risks in the DC plan, says Robert Marchessault, the organization’s director of pensions and benefits. For the DB plan, which […]
When a plan sponsor was seeing musculoskeletal issues come up in disability claims, it wanted to figure out if it could do more to support employees, according to Tamara Harduwar (pictured right), Manulife Canada’s director of health insights and outcomes for group benefits. During a session at Benefits Canada’s 2025 Healthy Outcomes Conference, she said […]
Private payors spent a collective $37 billion on health care in 2024 out of a total Canadian health-care spend of $372 billion, with the benefits industry continuing to see unprecedented advancement in technologies such as data analytics and artificial intelligence. Despite this, “we’re still not actually nudging substantial health outcomes,” said Dr. Andrew Bond, senior […]
It was 2023 and Henry Schein Canada was “late to the wellness party,” recalled Faye Gagne (pictured centre), the company’s manager of employee relations and wellness. Post-pandemic, the company’s culture surveys indicated employee stress levels were high, she said, noting she and other senior leaders wanted to reduce disability leave instances and durations, as well […]
Plan sponsors have far more access to benefits utilization and organizational health data than in recent years, but challenges persist with fragmentation and consistency across providers, as well as as difficulty turning data into action, according to a panel discussion at Benefits Canada’s 2025 Healthy Outcomes Conference. “We have 12 sources of data [from external […]
In stock ownership, Scotiabank employees have the combined heft of a large institutional investor: more than 30,000 active members in the bank’s employee share ownership plan own 20 million shares between them — or about 1.5 per cent of the institution’s total outstanding shares. “It’s a flagship benefit we have here,” says Simon Cabral, the […]
While Canadians have a better sense of the savings they’ll need to retire comfortably, they may still be underestimating the true cost, according to research presented by Jon Knowles, institutional portfolio manager for global asset allocation at Fidelity Investments, during Benefits Canada‘s 2025 DC Investment Forum. Canadians over age 45 estimated they’d need an average […]
According to MFS Investment Management’s Sean Kenney, his three sisters would all fall within the same target-date age cohort, but their lifestyles and retirement goals are completely different. His oldest sister, married with three kids, makes a middle-class income, doesn’t have a lavish lifestyle and loves being at home. Kenney’s twin sister, single with no […]
While integrating private assets into target-date funds can give plan members income-generating and diversification benefits at an attractive risk profile relative to traditional asset classes, these assets aren’t without complications, said Brett Goldstein, senior vice-president and head of asset allocation portfolio management at Franklin Templeton Investment Solutions. Speaking during Benefits Canada’s 2025 Defined Contribution Investment […]