In The News

Medium-term disability insurance could save help your disabled employee stay connected to workplace.

For more information click the link below

http://www.benefitscanada.com/benefits/absence-management/addressing-the-missing-middle-102029

 On January 30, 2017 the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission ruled that it was discriminatory to deny coverage for medical marijuana under a welfare trust plan. You can read the decision here. This decision is important, but there are some key elements that must be considered as follows,

• The plan did not limit eligibility to drugs with a drug identification number (DIN) assigned by Health Canada.
• The plan rejected the claim due to concerns over the financial impact of allowing such claims but failed to demonstrate an undue hardship but allowing eligibilty.

For plans that are administered by an insurer or third party administrator, the risk of this ruling will be limited based on a requirement for eligible drugs to have a drug identification number (DIN) assigned by Health Canada. At this point, medical marijuana does not have a DIN, even though it is prescribed by a physician. For plans that do not have a requirement for a DIN, this ruling is a warning shot. Programs like Health Spending Accounts, health and welfare trusts, and cost-plus programs will be exposed to the risk of medical marijuana if they do not have an established policy that would exclude the drug. 

Construction Industry

The construction industry has several minimum standards that are different from other industries. Employees performing construction work, and their employers, need to know the different rules for termination and general holidays.  The Construction Industry Wages Act also sets the minimum wages in the industry for tradespersons and other construction workers in the Industrial, Commercial, Institutional sector (ICI) and the Heavy construction sectors.

The 2017 Saskatchewan budget, tabled in March, included a new six per cent provincial sales tax (PST) on all insurance premiums “sold by any company, agency or group, where the insured person or business is a resident of Saskatchewan or the insurance contract is in respect to property located in Saskatchewan.” While the original budget set the effective date for the new tax to July 1, 2017, they have since changed that date to August 1, 2017, after consultations with insurance industry associations. It appears that all individual health and group policies will be subject to the tax, with the first premium payable being after July 31, 2017. Cost Plus and Health Care Spending Account arrangements are also subject to the PST.