Changes in payroll laws and regulations from across Canad
Alberta
Reminder: Minimum wage rates going up
The general minimum wage rate in Alberta will rise from $11.20 an hour to $12.20 on Oct. 1.
The rate will now apply to liquor servers since the government is eliminating a separate minimum wage rate for them on Oct. 1.
Other minimum wage rates are also going up at the beginning of October. The rate for certain salespersons specified in provincial regulations will rise from $446.00 per week to $486.00. The rate for domestic employees who live in their employer’s residence will increase from $2,127 per month to $2,316.
Labour Minister Christina Gray says the government will keep an election promise to raise the general minimum wage rate to $15 an hour by 2018. To achieve this, she says the government will increase the rate to $13.60 on Oct. 1, 2017, and to $15 on Oct. 1, 2018. The rates that apply for salespersons and domestic employees will increase by equivalent amounts.
British Columbia
Reminder: Minimum wage increasing Sept. 15
The British Columbia government will raise the province’s general minimum wage rate from $10.45 an hour to $10.85 on Sept. 15.
The rate hike will include a 10-cent increase, based on British Columbia’s 2015 consumer price index (CPI), as well as an extra 30 cents to account for economic growth in the province.
The minimum wage rate for liquor servers will increase from $9.20 an hour to $9.60. The government will also raise the daily rate for live-in home-support workers and live-in camp leaders, as well as the monthly rates for resident caretakers and the farm-worker piece rates proportionate to the general minimum hourly wage increases.
Shirley Bond, minister for jobs, tourism and skills training, says the government also plans to raise rates next year to take into account the province’s CPI and economic growth.
On Sept. 15, 2017, she estimates the general minimum wage rate will rise to $11.25 an hour and the rate for liquor servers will increase to $10 an hour.
Ontario
Government confirms plans to scrap ORPP
Ontario Finance Minister Charles Sousa has confirmed that this fall the provincial government will repeal legislation to implement a mandatory provincial pension plan.
Over the past two years, the government has tabled and passed laws to allow the province to create the Ontario Retirement Pension Plan (ORPP).
Contributions to the plan were to be mandatory for employees aged 18 to 70 who are employed in Ontario and who do not take part in a workplace pension plan that is comparable to the ORPP, as well as their employer.
The government announced earlier this year that it would begin enrolling employers in the ORPP next year and would phase in employer and employee contributions beginning in 2018.
With the federal government and all provinces but Quebec recently agreeing to enhance the Canada Pension Plan, Sousa said the Ontario government would stop the administrative work being done to create the ORPP and would introduce legislation to repeal ORPP laws when the legislature resumes sitting this fall.
Reminder: Minimum wage rates goes up Oct. 1
The general minimum wage rate in Ontario will rise from $11.25 an hour to $11.40 on Oct. 1.
Other minimum wage rates in the province will also go up. The rate for students who are under 18 and who work fewer than 28 hours a week (or more than 28 hours during school vacation) will go up from $10.55 an hour to $10.70.
The rate for liquor servers will rise from $9.80 an hour to $9.90. The minimum wage rate paid to homeworkers will increase from $12.40 an hour to $12.55.
The minimum wage rate for hunting and fishing guides will also increase. The rate for guides who work fewer than five consecutive hours in a day will increase from $56.30 to $56.95. The rate for guides who work five or more hours in a day, whether or not the hours are consecutive, will rise from $112.60 to $113.95.
Prince Edward Island
Reminder: Minimum wage rate going up
The minimum wage rate in Prince Edward Island will rise from $10.75 an hour to $11 on Oct. 1. It is the second minimum wage increase this year. On Jun. 1, the government raised the rate to $10.75 from $10.50.
The Department of Justice and Public Safety says about 9.3 per cent of P.E.I. workers are paid at the minimum wage rate.
Reminder: HST rate rising Oct. 1
Beginning Oct. 1, the rate for the Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) that applies in Prince Edward Island will rise from 14 per cent to 15 per cent.
The rate change will affect the value of taxable benefits that employers provide to employees that are subject to the HST.
The provincial government announced earlier this year that it would raise the provincial portion of the tax from nine per cent to 10 per cent, increasing the overall HST rate to 15 per cent.
With the change, the HST rate in all four Atlantic Provinces will be the same.
Saskatchewan
Reminder: Minimum wage rate going up
The minimum wage rate in Saskatchewan will rise from $10.50 an hour to $10.72 on Oct. 1.
Under Saskatchewan law, the government uses annual changes to the province’s consumer price index and average hourly wage to set the minimum wage rate.
