Bill 120, the Securing Pension Benefits Now and For the Future Act, 2010 fulfils the government's commitment in the 2010 Budget to build on recommendations of the Expert Commission on Pensions, advice from the Advisory Council on Pensions and Retirement Income, and discussions with the Canadian Institute of Actuaries.  Amendments were also made during extensive consultations with partners and the public.

This second set of reforms addresses almost 40 recommendations from the expert commission and would:  

• strengthen funding rules;
• permit more flexible funding rules for certain multi-employer pension plans and jointly sponsored pension plans;
• clarify pension surplus rules and provide a dispute resolution process to allow members, retirees, and sponsors to reach surplus-sharing agreements on plan wind-up;
• provide a more sustainable Pension Benefits Guarantee Fund; and
• further strengthen regulatory oversight and improve plan administration.

These proposed reforms are the outcome of extensive consultations and build on Bill 236, the Pension Benefits Amendment Act, 2010 that passed in the Legislature unanimously on May 5, 2010. Before Bill 236, pension rules in Ontario had been largely unchanged for more than two decades.

The government's reforms to date have responded to about two-thirds of the 142 recommendations in the expert commission's report that were addressed to the Ontario government. Remaining recommendations will be considered for inclusion in future reforms.

Ontario regulates approximately 8,350 employment pension plans, which comprise more than 40 per cent of all registered pension plans in Canada. Research conducted for the Expert Commission on Pensions found that 62 per cent of Ontario families with a member in the workforce have some degree of pension coverage.

As part of the Open Ontario plan, the Ontario government says it supports a multi-pronged approach to reform of the retirement income system and playing a leading role in national discussions on retirement income system reform to help Ontario families.

Manitoba recently proposed amendments to the act which would add four new occupational disease presumptions for firefighters. If enacted, these amendments would apply to full-, part-time and volunteer firefighters.

"Manitoba was the first jurisdiction in Canada to enact a firefighter's disease presumption," says Labour and Immigration Minister Jennifer Howard, minister responsible for the Workers Compensation Act. "These new amendments reflect our ongoing commitment to the brave men and women who risk their lives on a daily basis."

The four new cancers which would be added to the list are multiple myeloma, primary site prostate, skin and, for the first time in Canada, breast cancer. Ten primary-site cancers have been listed since the first presumptive legislation in 2002:  brain, bladder, kidney, lung, ureter, colorectal, esophageal and testicular cancers, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and leukemia.   

Manitoba firefighters have worked with government to help bring together the scientific and medical research showing that firefighters experience higher rates of certain cancers, the minister said.

"Firefighters lay their lives on the line not only at the fire scene itself, but also face a higher risk of developing cancer in later years," said Alex Forrest, president of the United Fire Fighters of Winnipeg. "Firefighters in Winnipeg and across the province applaud the government of Manitoba for recognizing that fact in this important legislation."

In 2002, Manitoba became the first jurisdiction to have a firefighter disease presumption. Five cancers were initially included. In 2005, the Workers Compensation Act was amended to expand the presumption to part-time and volunteer firefighters, add three more cancers and presume heart injuries within 24 hours of an emergency response to be work-related injuries. In 2009, testicular and esophageal cancers were added.

Employment in British Columbia has reached an all-time record high, breaking the previous employment record set two years ago, Finance Minister Colin Hansen announced at the start of December.

“B.C.’s economy is continuing its recovery from the global downturn and employment has now exceeded pre-recession levels,” said Hansen. “Retail sales and exports are also showing growth compared to last year, but we remain mindful of ongoing instability across many sectors and international markets.”

According to the Labour Force Survey released today by Statistics Canada, B.C. created 4,300 jobs in November, resulting in a total of 2,326,100 people working in B.C. in November. B.C.’s employment is now 2,600 jobs above the all-time high of 2,323,500 jobs reached in July 2008, prior to the start of the global economic slowdown.

Year-to-date to November, B.C. has created 46,600 more jobs than the same period last year. Since December 2001, B.C. has added 307,000 full-time positions and 120,000 part-time positions.

Terms of Engagement: New Ways of Leading and Changing Organizations. 2nd Edition
By Richard H. Axelrod
Barrett-Koehler Publishers; $29.95 (U.S.)

Consultant Richard Axelrod says the idea for his book, now newly launched as a second edition, was to provide line managers with a guidebook for implementing organizational change. Axelrod focuses on four core principles and three practices that enable leaders to build strong employee commitment to change efforts. He shows how the old change management model actually discourages engagement.

Axelrod first destroys six common change management myths and then shows leaders how to involve everyone in an organization-not just select committees or working groups – in designing change efforts. He offers strategies for creating connections between people at all levels and building communities within the organization enthusiastically engaged in fostering change.  Underpinning all these efforts, he insists, must be a fundamental and transparent commitment to fairness in planning, implementation and outcome.

This revised edition features many new interviews and three new chapters. It includes a summary of recent findings in neuroscience that support Axelrod’s change model, and advice on how you can encourage engagement through everyday conversations, staff meetings, and work design.

Click here for more information (Axelrod speaks in a brief video on the book), or to order the book.