Contents:

Welcome
Upcoming Events
What's New
GrandMaster Updates

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Welcome!

November 2002 - Welcome to the latest edition of The Payroll News. As always, please feel free to forward this newsletter to your friends and associates who are interested in keeping up with the latest changes in the Payroll industry. Or better yet, subscribe them for free using the Tell Someone About Us link.

Upcoming Events

Listed here are recent changes in legislation on Federal and Provincial levels that may impact your payroll calculations. Please view the following list for changes that affect your region.

FEDERAL:

October 24, 2002 - Framework agreement with the CCRA means better service for citizens of Nunavut - The Ministers of National Revenue and the Nunavut Minister of Finance today signed an innovative agreement that will benefit citizens of Nunavut. This Service Management Framework agreement -- similar to those already in place between the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency (CCRA) and nine other territories and provinces -- ensures that the CCRA will be accountable to Nunavut for the territorial programs it administers on the territory's behalf. (Full Story - 311 Words)

October 8, 2002 - Changes to protect the integrity of the Social Insurance Number - Human Resources Development Canada (HRDC) announced additional steps to guard the integrity and to improve the security of the Social Insurance Number (SIN). HRDC is taking these new measures to further protect the SIN from fraud and abuse. Effective immediately, HRDC will accept only original identity documents as proof of identity for a SIN and will reduce the number of documents it accepts as proof of identity. (Full Story - 324 Words)

October 17, 2002 - Allan Rock Announces Internships to Accelerate Canadian E-Business - Industry Minister Allan Rock announced that Industry Canada will contribute $500,000 to eCorps, a pilot project designed to help small- and medium-sized enterprises become more e-business ready. The eCorps pilot will provide 50 internships in small and medium-sized businesses across Canada. Industry Canada, working with Career Edge, a private sector not-for-profit organization, as well as with leading technology companies, will help Canadian small and medium-sized business develop their potential by leveraging the opportunities of the Internet economy. (Full Story - 662 Words)

Alberta:

September 30, 2002 - WCB Launches New Toll-Free Number - The Alberta WCB has announced a new toll-free number for long distance callers. The new, easier-to-remember toll-free number is 1-866-WCB-WCB-1. The new toll-free number offers easy access to the Workers' Compensation Board - Alberta for all its clients and customers. This new number replaces the WCB's link through the government's RITE line system. (Full Story - 151 Words)

October 30, 2002 - Employers' 2003 premium rates will increase 12.5% - "In order to encourage employers to make significant improvements in workplace safety, the WCB has completed the move towards a rate that is based on the full cost of workplace injuries." states President & CEO Guy Kerr. In 2003, premium rates will increase by 12.5% from $1.68 to $1.89 per $100 of insurable earnings to meet those rising costs. The 2003 premium rate will fully fund expected claims costs in 2003. (Full Story - 458 Words)

British Columbia:

October 10, 2002 - WCB appeal changes improve responsiveness - Labour Minister Graham Bruce announced today the introduction of Bill 63. The Workers Compensation Amendment Act (No. 2), 2002, reduces the levels of review and appeal of WCB decisions from three to two, creates a new internal review function to improve the quality of initial decision-making and establishes a new, independent appeal tribunal as the final level of appeal for workers’ compensation matters. The bill replaces Bill 56, the Workers Compensation Amendment Act (No. 2), 2002, introduced in May. (Full Story - 520 Words)

October 9, 2002 - WCB wins international award - The International Association of Industrial Accident Boards and Commissions (IAIABC) has awarded first place in the Program Improvement Category to the Workers' Compensation Board of B.C. at their 88th annual convention in Detroit, Michigan. The award resulted from a submission detailing how information from the WCB's Data Warehouse was used to focus young worker initiatives by identifying high-risk industries in specific regions. (Full Story - 388 Words)

October 25, 2002 - WCB average premium rate to rise modestly in 2003 - The average base premium rate for B.C. employers in 2003 will rise a modest 1.2 percent to $2.06 per $100 of assessable worker payroll, a three-cent increase from 2002, the Workers' Compensation Board announced today. The 2003 rate compares competitively with neighbouring jurisdictions such as Alberta where the average rate will rise more than 12 percent, Washington State where the average rate will rise 40 percent, and various other Canadian jurisdictions that will rise from five to nine percent. (Full Story - 743 Words)

Manitoba:

October 31, 2002 - Injured Workers in Need of Medical Care Benefit from Three Year Deal - The Manitoba Medical Association and Workers Compensation Board of Manitoba have reached a tentative three-year agreement recognizing the comprehensive nature of services physicians provide to WCB claimants. In particular, new administrative fees address the non-clinical time physicians spend working with WCB staff on various issues relating to the care and recovery of claimants. (Full Story - 520 Words)

New Brunswick:

October 11, 2002 - Province sees largest decrease in unemployment rate in country - The province had the most New Brunswickers working ever last month as it experienced the largest percentage increase in employment growth and the most significant drop in its seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in the nation, Training and Employment Development Minister Norman McFarlane said today. New Brunswick's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate dropped 1.1 percentage points to stand at 10.2 per cent in September, down from 11.3 per cent at the same time last year. This was the largest percentage decrease in the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in the country on a year over year basis. (Full Story - 312 Words)

Newfoundland and Labrador:

October 11, 2002 - Employment numbers continue upwards trend - Newfoundland and Labrador continued to record employment growth on a year over year basis for the month of September. According to Statistics Canada’s latest Labour Force Survey, employment in the province grew by 0.6 per cent, or approximately 1,300 jobs, as compared to the same month last year. Along with the employment increases came labour force growth as more people actively sought work. As a result, the unemployment rate rose to 14.6 per cent as compared to 13.5 per cent in September 2001. (Full Story - 239 Words)

October 11, 2002 - Regulation passed to bring the construction sector into the early and safe return-to-work model - The NL Labour Minister announced today that Regulations under the Workplace Health, Safety and Compensation Act have been amended to include construction companies under the new, early and safe return-to-work obligations which came into effect on January 1, 2002. Employees of construction companies were exempt from the model until a consensus could be reached on how to include them in the existing legislation. The exemption was granted due to the unique hiring practices in the industry. (Full Story - 435 Words)

Northwest Territories and Nunavut:

October 30, 2002 - WCB and HRDC Sign M.O.U. - The Workers’ Compensation Board of the NWT and Nunavut and Human Resources Development Canada signed a cooperation agreement to allow for better support in each others activities with respect to occupational safety and health of workers. The agreement will also facilitate the sharing of technical information, specialty services and officer training within both organizations. (Full Story - 163 Words)

Ontario:

October 11, 2002 - Ontario employment surges by 32,300 in September - Ontario continues to promote growth and prosperity as an additional 32,000 jobs were created in September, Finance Minister Janet Ecker said today. "More than 980,000 new jobs have been created since September 1995," Ecker said. "Our government will continue to focus on prudent fiscal management to help support economic growth and new jobs." (Full Story - 250 Words)

Saskatchewan:

October 25, 2002 - Second step of minimum wage increase - Saskatchewan's minimum wage will go up 30 cents an hour, to $6.65 an hour, on Friday, November 1st. The minimum wage increase was first announced March 6th as part of a two step process that saw the minimum wage raised 35 cents an hour, to $6.35 an hour, on May 1st. (Full Story - 164 Words)

October 16, 2002 - Markets continue impact on WCB bottom line - The continued downturn in worldwide investment markets is the driving factor behind an anticipated operating loss for 2002, attendees at the Saskatchewan Workers’ Compensation Board’s (WCB’s) annual general meeting were told. Projections after the third quarter of 2002 indicate that by the end of the year, income from investments will be $9 million below budget. (Full Story - 627 Words)

October 11, 2002 - Another Jobs Record Set - Statistics Canada figures released today show the highest number ever for people working in September. There were 493,700 people employed in the province last month (seasonally unadjusted), beating the previous record set three years ago and an increase of 19,500 over September 2001. Last month's numbers marked the fifth consecutive month of solid job growth over last year's figures. (Full Story - 422 Words)

The latest release of GrandMaster Suite (3.60.12) incorporates a number of changes to make it even easier to use the program and perform your payroll tasks. Recent program changes since our last Payroll News issue include:

• End of employee selection list message has been added - In the View Pay History dialog box, we have added an error message to indicate when you are the start or end of the employee selection. The message will appear when you select the Next or Previous employee button with no further employees in the list. This functionality has also been added to the Pay Sequence Selection dialog box.
• Newfoundland and Labrador abbreviation change from NF to NL - The Provincial abbreviation for Newfoundland and Labrador has been changed from NF to NL. This was based on official legislation that became effective October 21, 2002.
• Employee missing pay periods when creating ROEs - If you created an ROE using the Pending Termination setting and spanned from one pay period into another, and if there were several employees in the current group, the first employee's final period ending date would be applied to each subsequent employee in the group. This was causing everyone in the next pay period to be missing pay periods. This has been addressed so that now when you create ROEs through pending termination, the employees' correct dates are processed.
• Reverse Pay doubling up on certain earnings - If you ran a Reverse Pay run, reversal was doubling up any earnings that were not being reversed. This has been corrected.
• Employee Number not being exported correctly - If you created a Transaction Report and exported it with the Employee Number as one of your options, the program would export the employee's system-generated ID number in place of the employee number. This has been corrected.

Stay tuned to CanPay's Product News page to receive the latest changes and release information for all GrandMaster products!

Many employers receive a substantial number of written requests for payroll information from HRDC. This usually means that payroll/HR personnel must periodically open their archives and retrieve the requisite data for a given employee (or employees). Depending on the number of requests, this additional task can result in an ongoing increased workload for the payroll/HR department.

To assist employers with this task, the HRDC has developed the Automated Earnings Reporting System (AERS). This voluntary program collects information from participating employers who submit their computer records in a pre-defined format. Each record contains the employee's name, SIN, pay periods worked, gross earnings received, the employer's name, address and Canada Customs Revenue Agency (CCRA) - Business number.

By joining the program, employers are able to effectively eliminate payroll earning information requests that would ordinarily come from the HRDC. Instead, AERS participants can regularly forward the required portion of their payroll data to the HRDC, via the Internet. This information is matched directly to the participating company's EI Claim File and is used to verify the earnings of Employment Insurance benefit recipients.

The predefined format includes payroll data shown on a weekly basis from Sunday to Saturday. Although their payroll types may vary, employers having daily data capture are able to participate in the AERS program as they can provide the payroll data in the required weekly, Sunday to Saturday format. Once all coding requirements have been implemented, a User ID and Password are assigned and the URL for the Secure Channel, Data Gateway, is provided to the employer. Once a valid submission has been successfully processed through Data Gateway, employers will no longer receive written requests for payroll earnings information.

AERS helps to ensure the ongoing administration of the Employment Insurance Act and to detect unreported work and earnings of claimants. The submitted information may be used for internal audit purposes and may be provided to find Commission debtors whose whereabouts are unknown. The information may also be provided to private sector research firms for evaluations, research, planning and statistics.

Payroll Applications with AERS Support

It is important to understand the HRDC requires hours based on days worked as opposed to days paid. If an employee has earnings in a previous pay period, the earnings must be assigned the correct dates. CanPay Computer Software is proud to provide this flexibility to users of their GrandMaster Suite Payroll program.

GrandMaster Suite provides an export facility that allows users to select the week they wish to export. Once the program has created the file in the required format, users can e-mail it directly to the HRDC. If you utilize this feature in GrandMaster Suite, the HRDC will no longer call or request past payroll information from you. As mentioned earlier, this can translate into a big time savings for your payroll/HR personnel.

CanPay has implemented this feature into the latest pre-production version of GrandMaster Suite and will make it available to all users in an upcoming November release! Visit CanPay's News page for the official release announcement: http://www.canpay.com/news.html.

For more information from HRDC on their AERS Program, please contact:
Mr. Robert Leblanc at 1(866) 648-6937 or by e-mail at: robert.l.leblanc@hrdc-drhc.gc.ca, or
Ms. Sherry Sharpe at 1(866) 866-0766 or by e-mail at: sherry.sharpe@hrdc-drhc.gc.ca.