Changes in payroll laws and regulations from across Canada
Manitoba
Provincial health and tax levy report due at month’s end
Employers who pay the provincial Health and Post Secondary Education Tax Levy must file an annual report with the provincial Finance Department by March 31.
The department uses the report to reconcile an employer’s annual payroll with the tax levy it paid for the year.
Along with the annual return, employers must submit a cheque for any amount owing (unless paying online), a copy of the applicable T4 and T4A summaries, and a summary of any contributions to an employee profit-sharing plan or an employee trust.
They must also include a reconciliation of the difference between the remuneration shown on the annual return and the amounts reported on the T4 and T4A summaries.
Employers who are part of an associated corporation or corporate partnership must designate one corporation to file a Schedule for Associated Corporations/Corporate Partnerships.
New Brunswick
New ESA leaves proposed
The New Brunswick government is proposing to add new job-protected leaves for domestic or sexual violence and for caring for family members to the province’s Employment Standards Act.
Bill 44, An Act to Amend the Employment Standards Act, which Labour, Employment and Population Growth Minister Gilles LePage tabled in the provincial legislature Feb. 2, would allow employees who are victims of domestic violence, intimate partner violence or sexual violence to take time off work to deal with the situation.
The bill does not specify how long the leave would be, the purposes for which an employee could take it, or whether the leave (or any part of it) would be paid or unpaid. The bill provides for those details to be included in regulations under the act.
LePage said the government would write the regulations after holding consultations. He has previously indicated that employees would be permitted to take the leave to seek medical attention, obtain support services, temporarily or permanently move, and seek legal or law enforcement assistance.
The bill would also:
• increase the length of child care leave from 37 weeks to 62 weeks, with the maximum combined maternity and child care leave rising from 52 weeks to 78 weeks
• allow family members beyond a child’s parents to take a 37-week leave for a critically ill child
• introduce a 16-week unpaid leave for family members to care for a critically ill adult.
“Introducing leave provisions for persons experiencing domestic or intimate partner violence would align the province with Manitoba, Ontario, Alberta and Saskatchewan, while updating unpaid leave protections in the Employment Standards Actwould reflect recent changes to the federal government’sEmployment Insurance Act,” said LePage.
In December, the federal government implemented employment insurance (EI) amendments that enhanced maternity, parental and caregiving benefits.
Among the changes, eligible EI claimants may now receive parental benefits for 35 weeks with benefits paid at 55 per cent of average weekly earnings or for 61 weeks at a benefit rate of 33 per cent.
The government also implemented a 15-week EI benefit for individuals who take time off work to care for a critically ill adult family member and it expanded eligibility for receiving EI benefits for caring for a critically ill child to include family members beyond the child’s parents.
Minimum wage increasing to $11.25 next month
On April 1, the provincial government will raise New Brunswick’s minimum wage rate from $11.00 an hour to $11.25, Labour, Employment and Population Growth Minister Gilles LePage recently announced.
He said the rate increase is the result of a government decision to begin indexing the minimum wage rate to corresponding increases in New Brunswick’s consumer price index.
“Ensuring that future minimum wage increases are indexed to the consumer price index will provide predictability and help New Brunswick businesses plan for their future,” said LePage.
Nova Scotia
Minimum wage rising to $11
The general minimum wage rate in Nova Scotia will rise from $10.85 an hour to $11.00 on April 1, the provincial government recently announced.
The rate applies to employees with at least three months of experience. The rate for employees with less than three months of experience will increase from $10.35 per hour to $10.50. The province indexes the minimum wage rates to the consumer price index for Canada.
The Nova Scotia government has also announced that this spring the province’s Minimum Wage Review Committee will examine the way minimum wage rates are set.
The announcement follows a decision by Atlantic premiers to study ways to harmonize provincial minimum wage rates and how they are adjusted.
Ontario
Equity standards in force as of April
Beginning April 1, employers will have to pay casual, part-time, temporary, and seasonal workers at least the same rate of pay as their full-time/permanent employees if they do substantially the same work.
The new requirements stem from amendments to the Employment Standards Act, 2000, passed late last year.
They will prohibit employers from paying employees less than other workers because of a difference in their employment status when the workers do substantially the same kind of work in the same workplace under similar working conditions, and their job requires substantially the same skill, effort and responsibility.
Similar requirements will apply for employees of temporary help agencies.
Employers will be prohibited from reducing an employee’s pay rate in order to comply with the new rules.
Exceptions will apply where an employer pays employees differently because of a seniority system, a merit system, a system that measures earnings by quantity or quality of production, or any other factor except for sex or employment status.
For temporary help agencies, exemptions will apply if the pay difference is based on factors other than sex, employment status, or assignment employee status.
The amendments will also allow casual, part-time, temporary and seasonal workers who believe they are paid less because of their employment status to ask their employer to review their wage rate.
Workers who believe they are paid less because of their sex will also this right.
It will also apply to assignment employees of temporary help agencies who believe that they are not being paid the same rate as a client’s employees who do substantially the same work.
Employers who receive requests will have to change the employee’s pay rate or reply in writing as to why they disagree with the employee’s belief.
Annual EHT report due mid-month
Employers who are required to pay the Employer Health Tax (EHT) must file their Annual Return with Ontario’s Finance Ministry no later than March 15.
The ministry uses the form to calculate the employer’s total EHT owing for the previous year. For employers who remit the tax in monthly instalments, the ministry uses the form to compare the instalments already paid for the year with the total tax due to determine if there is a refund owing or a balance due.
Employers who are members of an associated group must also submit an Associated Employers Exemption Allocation form. Only one employer in the group is required to complete and submit it.
WSIB form due this month
Employers who pay monthly premiums to Ontario’s Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) for workers’ compensation coverage must file an annual Reconciliation Form with the WSIB by the end of the month.
The WSIB uses the form to compare the employer’s actual earnings for the previous year with the amounts the employer reported monthly throughout the year.
