The City of Mississauga’s newest employee, Ajax the two-year-old golden labrador retriever, is dogged in his pursuit of better mental health for emergency services personnel. Ajax, a facility dog from National Service Dogs, is available to Mississauga Fire and Emergency Services staff as part of the department’s wellness-fitness initiative. The goal of having Ajax on-site […]
As the gap continues to widen between required infrastructure spending and actual dedicated funds, according to the G20, private infrastructure projects represent a strong opportunity for institutional investors. Speaking at TD Asset Management Inc.’s institutional investment symposium in Toronto on Wednesday, Matthew Press, the firm’s vice-president of infrastructure investments, said the funding gap in the G20 […]
In October 2017, De Beers Canada senior management flew to the company’s remote Victor diamond mine near Attawapiskat, Ont., to tell its employees some tough but not unexpected news: the mine was slated to close in the first quarter of 2019. When the fly-in, fly-out operation opened in 2008, the company forecasted it would last […]
Since Grace Palombo joined Great-West Lifeco Inc. five years ago, she’s seen a shift at the company. Back then, in her role as executive vice-president and chief human resources officer, she was the only woman in a group of 12 executives who reported to the chief executive officer. Today, the company’s leadership includes eight members […]
Manulife Financial Corp. is rolling out its Vitality health and wellness app to all its group benefits plan members after initially launching it with its own employees. The Vitality program, which connects with wearable devices, including smartwatches, fitness bracelets and smartphones, is designed to encourage users to make healthy choices and rewards them with gift […]
Employers should consider adjusting their job posting requirements and becoming more creative to attract diverse candidates to their companies. Speaking at the Toronto Global Forum on Wednesday, Neil Parmenter, president and chief executive officer of the Canadian Bankers Association, recalled a conversation with an executive recruiter friend who often had difficulty finding a candidates for a board appointments. Organizations […]
Five major pharmaceutical companies have filed a constitutional challenge to the federal government’s incoming changes to the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board. The complaint was filed in Quebec Superior Court by the Canadian subsidiaries of Merck & Co., Janssen Inc., Bayer, Boehringer Ingelheim Ltd. and Servier Inc. In statements provided to Benefits Canada, the companies […]
Shopify Inc. is putting out the welcome mat for software developers who’ve taken leave from work with its new training program. The three-month paid program will help senior developers re-join the workforce after leaves of absence by bringing them up to speed on any technical developments in their field and training them on the Shopify […]
When employees at Accenture begin a gender transition, they have access to a comprehensive suite of benefits. In 2011, the global consulting firm became one of the first companies in Canada to cover costs related to transitioning. Zoya Zayler, inclusion and diversity lead for Canada, says the organization worked with its benefits provider to design a fulsome and customizable […]
In 2016, KPMG Canada’s benefits program was facing a perfect storm: the company was starting to see a change in its workforce’s needs; employees didn’t value some of its offerings, found the program difficult to understand and felt the pay and total rewards package weren’t competitive; and the organization’s new management team didn’t believe the […]