Contents:

Welcome
Upcoming Events
What's New
GrandMaster Updates
IMPORTANT NEWS!

NOTE: This archive references other sites on the World Wide Web. From time to time, an article's link may be moved or deleted from the host site. If you encounter an out-of-date link, please e-mail the thepayrollnews@canpay.com.

Welcome!

March 2003 - 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.

Remember to check out our Exciting New Product Announcement!

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:

February 6, 2003 - New T4E for 2002 - Human Resources Development Canada (HRDC) and Canada Custom and Revenue Agency (CCRA) have designed a new T4E that is more generic. The Statement of EI and Other Benefits (T4E) has some important changes to it that result from a change in HRDC's accounts receivable system that began on June 24, 2002. (Full Story - 1003 Words)

Alberta:

February 13, 2003 - New committee to monitor reform of workers' compensation system - A new committee consisting of two government MLAs and two members of the Board of Directors of the WCB will monitor the ongoing implementation of reforms to the Alberta workers' compensation system and will help ensure that legislative changes made last year are resulting in faster, more consistent, and more effective service. (Full Story - 360 Words)

British Columbia:

February 25, 2003 - Public hearing on proposed amendments to occupational health and safety requirements - The Workers' Compensation Board will hold a public hearing to solicit public comment regarding proposed amendments to various parts of the occupational health and safety regulations. The amendments concern occupational exposure limits, duplication and redundancy of regulations and occupational first aid. People's views may be presented orally and/or in writing. (Full Story - 370 Words)

February 13, 2003 - Online Client Payroll Reporting now available - A secured service, Client Payroll Reporting, is designed for accountants, bookkeepers and other service providers who deal with the WCB on behalf of a number of different clients. With this service, you can submit payroll reports for all of your clients in a single online session. Simply enter the payroll figures for each client and the application performs the calculations automatically. (Full Story - 157 Words)

February 19, 2003 - Government announces changes to the Employee Investment Act - Announced changes to the Employee Investment Act will make it easier for small business to obtain investment capital, and that support government’s commitment to create a vibrant private-sector economy with high-paying job opportunities. “We’re well aware of the needs of employees and small businesses when the employer retires, ” said Minister of Competition, Science and Enterprise Rick Thorpe. (Full Story - 446 Words)

Manitoba:

February 7, 2003 - WCB continues support of community initiatives - The Workers Compensation Board of Manitoba (WCB) announced the latest funding recipients of its Community Initiatives and Research Program (CIRP) today. The CIRP provides up to $1 million annually to fund projects focusing on accident and disease prevention, safety in the workplace, treatment of workplace injuries, support for injured workers and their families, and research into scientific, medical or other issues related to workers compensation. (Full Story - 546 Words)

February 11, 2003 - WCB funding to focus safety on aboriginal peoples, literacy and gender issues - The WCB of Manitoba has announced the priorities of its CIRP program for 2003. This year's program focuses on the occupational health and safety of aboriginal people, those with literacy challenges, and gender issues related to occupational safety. (Full Story - 570 Words)

New Brunswick:

February 7, 2003 - N.B. has second largest unemployment rate drop in country - New Brunswick experienced the second largest decrease in the country in its seasonally adjusted unemployment rate and there were 8,400 more New Brunswickers working than at the same time last year, Training and Employment Development Minister Norman McFarlane said today. "I am pleased to see that the unemployment rate was dramatically lower last month and there were more New Brunswickers working and actively seeking work than at the same time last year," McFarlane said. (Full Story - 319 Words)

Newfoundland and Labrador:

February 7, 2003 - Province begins 2003 with increase in employment - On the heels of employment gains in 2002, Newfoundland and Labrador began 2003 with a further increase in employment, as well as growth in labour force participation rate to the highest participation rate ever for the month of January. Employment in the province was up 2.1 per cent, or approximately 4,100 jobs, in January 2003 compared with the same month last year. (Full Story - 308 Words)

Nova Scotia:

February 14, 2003 - Annual Minimum Wage Review Under Way - The province is looking for public input as it conducts its annual review of Nova Scotia's minimum wage. The Labour Standards Code requires that a review of the minimum wage be conducted each year. This year's review will be held during the next few weeks. Results are expected sometime in April. (Full Story - 183 Words)

Nunavut:

February 13, 2003 - Minimum wage increases more than 20 per cent - Nunavut's minimum wage will increase by more than 20 per cent to $8.50 per hour to more accurately reflect the cost of living in the territory, Justice Minister and Premier Paul Okalik announces. "With this increase we have the highest minimum wage in Canada, which is driven by the fact that we have the highest cost of living in the country," Okalik said. "This increase will help provide economic support to minimum wage earners in Nunavut." (Full Story - 262 Words)

February 24, 2003 - Funding to help Nunavut youth gain work experience - Ms. Nancy Karetak-Lindell, Member of Parliament for Nunavut, to day announced Government of Canada funding of $284,014 for a Youth Internship Canada project, entitled Nunavut Youth Interns. "This project will provide youth in Nunavut with the opportunity to gain skills to successfully enter the labour force," said Ms. Karetak-Lindell. (Full Story - 489 Words)

Ontario:

February 25, 2003 - Government invests $5 million to help Ontarians enter training and apprenticeship programs - The Ontario government is investing nearly $5.4 million to help Ontarians gain better access to leading-edge apprenticeship and training programs, Dianne Cunningham, Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities, announced today. "A skilled workforce is a priority for our economy and our government," said Cunningham. "Through these investments we are improving access to leading-edge training and taking another step towards our goal of doubling the number of Ontarians entering apprenticeship programs." (Full Story - 524 Words)

February 27, 2003 - Eves Doubles Investment For Apprenticeship Training - Ernie Eves, Ontario’s Premier, today announced the government will double its commitment to the Apprenticeship Enhancement Fund to $10 million in order to modernize training facilities for apprentice programs at Ontario’s community colleges. “We have created an economic climate in Ontario that is attracting investment and created jobs, which is why we must provide our students with the essential skills that are needed to stay competitive in this rapidly changing environment,” Eves said. (Full Story - 261 Words)

February 10, 2003 - Eves government announces tougher tax collection measures - The Ernie Eves government will cancel the charters of corporations that fail to file their tax returns under a new plan to improve tax collection, Finance Minister Janet Ecker announced today. "These measures will help ensure that tax revenues are collected in a timely fashion," said Ecker. Notices will be sent by April 30, 2003, to all corporations in Ontario that have not filed their returns or their Exempt from Filing declarations. (Full Story - 762 Words)

February 26, 2003 - Research Advisory Council 2003 RFP - The WSIB Research Advisory Council (RAC) received a total of 48 proposals for this year's competition under the Solutions for Workplace Change research grants program. The RAC hopes to make its funding recommendations to the WSIB Board of Directors by late May. Two Types of Grants The program offers two types of grants, Full Grants and Development Grants. Full Grants are for fully developed proposals, and are offered for a maximum of two years, with a maximum budget of $150,000 per year. Development Grants are for a maximum of 12 months and a budget limit of $30,000. (Full Story - 221 Words)

February 24, 2003 - WSIB Voluntary Registration Program ends March 31, 2003 - For most businesses in Ontario, WSIB registration is a legal obligation. Companies can step forward to register before March 31, 2003 and avoid potentially significant financial consequences. Employers who contact the Ontario WSIB to register voluntarily will only need to pay premiums retroactive to a maximum of 12 months prior to the date of registration. (Full Story - 167 Words)

Saskatchewan:

February 5, 2003 - Benefits improve for injured workers - New legislation in Saskatchewan has increased workers’ compensation benefits effective January 1, 2003. There are five major changes, one of which includes increasing the maximum insurable annual earnings from $48,000 to $51,900 on January 1, 2003, increasing to $53,000 on January 1, 2004, and $55,000 on January 1, 2005. Alberta currently sets its maximum coverage at $58,000, while the Manitoba maximum is $54,590. (Full Story - 479 Words)

February 4, 2003 - Program benefits students and employers - The provincial government launched the third year of the Centennial Student Employment Program (CSEP) today. Since its inception, CSEP has helped over 3,000 students find meaningful employment experience throughout 100 Saskatchewan communities. CSEP is a five-year program specifically designed to help Saskatchewan students 16 years and older find employment related to their current field of study or future career ambition. The program provides employers with subsidies of up to 75 per cent of student job costs, to a maximum of $3,500 per job. (Full Story - 309 Words)

The current release of GrandMaster Suite (3.70.02) 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:

• Check box to turn off warning messages in the Customized Payroll Report - A check box has been added to the Customized Payroll Report dialog to allow you to turn off warning messages when printing a report. If this option is not selected you may see warning messages during the printing of a report but the program is restricted to a maximum of one warning message per employee.
• The Transaction Report now includes Province and Type Description as field options - The Transaction Report has been modified to include "Province" and "Type Description" as field options. This change in turn allows you to use either of these selections as sort options.
• Schedule Module reports include new sort method - The Employee Time Cards, Employee Schedule Report, Weekly Schedule Report, and the Calendar Schedule Report have been modified to a three level sort method. This method allows you to choose the items you wish to sort on based on your field selections. In addition we have added field selections and new selection options.
• ROE indicator not displayed - When you view an employee's View EI History dialog where the employee had been issued an ROE, the "ROE" indicator was not being displayed in the listing of history at the point where it was issued. This has been corrected and the text "ROE" will be displayed in the sequence summary line when the ROE was issued.
• Distribution Report missing distributions for statutory deductions/benefits - The Distribution Report was missing distributions for the statutory deductions by province as per the Distribution Table listing. This has been corrected and when you print this report the distributions for all defined statutory deduction or benefits will match those as shown in the Distribution Table.
• WCB paying back benefits to employees - WCB benefits were being paid back to employees who had reached or surpassed the WCB maximum assessable in the previous year when calculating their first pay of the year. The amount of that was being paid back was the difference between the 2002 WCB rate and the 2003 WCB rate. This version corrects this problem however; a YTD Adjustment to the WCB benefit for any employee with a negative YTD WCB amount will be required.
• Print T4 Statements printing 2 T4's for Newfoundland employees - The Print T4 Statements option was printing two T4's for employees whose tax province was Newfoundland and Labrador. This bug was occurring because of the change in province abbreviation during 2002 from the original "NF" to "NL". The employee would have a T4 printed using each of the two provincial abbreviations. This release corrects this problem.
• Distributions assigned to positions not importing correctly - The Import Pay Hours function did not pick up the correct distribution when importing pay hour data including a position with a specific distribution assigned to it. The Import Pay Hours function has been modified to correct this problem. If the position you are importing does not have an assigned distribution, the import will assign the default distribution.
• EFT will not create CSB file - The EFT program would not create a transmission file for Canada Savings Bond deduction data because the pay date is prior to the system date. The EFT program has modified to create an EFT file regardless of the pay date. The program will now provide a warning indicating that the pay date is prior to the system date and the financial institution may not accept the file. This message will appear once and then the after you select the OK button EFT file creation will continue. This processing change also affects the regular EFT creation process for employee pay.

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

Exciting New Product Announcement!

CanPay is proud to announce that we are nearing the final stages of an exciting NEW product -- GrandMaster. Developed in and running under Java, this exciting new program will provide fast and easy payroll processing for simple and complex payrolls. But best of all, GrandMaster will now provide you the flexibility of processing your payrolls remotely, over the Internet.

If you are an original user of GrandMaster (for DOS) or GrandMaster II (for DOS), you will find this tool particularily useful as it will incorporate many of the features that you've come to appreciate in these fine programs. Additionally, you will now be able to run this GrandMaster from any operating system that supports Java (e.g. Windows, Macintosh OS, Linux etc.).

Stay tuned to this newsletter for further announcements about this exciting new product!

This month we continue with our basic review of the responsibilities and obligations that Canadian employers have with respect to the deduction of employee income tax, Canada Pension Plan contributions, and Employment Insurance premiums.

EI rules and premiums payable for 2002 and 2003

Employers and employees alike have to pay Employment Insurance premiums on every dollar of insurable earnings. However, you stop deducting Employment Insurance premiums when you reach the maximum employee contribution. And as always, employers need to remember to exclude in their calculations any premiums the employee may have made through another employer in the year.

The maximum annual insurable earnings are $39,000 for 2002. The premium rate for 2002 is 2.2% of insurable earnings and the maximum employee contribution is $858.00. The maximum annual insurable earnings are $39,000 for 2003.

The premium rate for 2003 is 2.1% of insurable earnings and the maximum employee contribution is $819.00. There is no age limit for withholding EI premiums.

As an employer, your EI premium is 1.4 times the EI premium payable by each employee. For more information, you can refer to the CCRA's Guide T4001- Payroll Deductions (Basic Information). If your company encounters special situations concerning barbers, hairdressers, taxi drivers, and drivers of other passenger-carrying vehicles, please refer to the CCRA's Guide T4001 - Payroll Deductions (Basic Information).

EI Premium Relief

All employers who employed youths aged 18 to 24 in 1999 or 2000, could be eligible for EI premium relief under the Federal Youth Hires Program, regardless of the size of the business. The amount of the premium relief will depend on the increase in insurable earnings for those youths aged 18 to 24, compared to the 1998 base year totals for the same age group.

If you are eligible to receive benefits under the Federal Youth Hires Program and you are an associated employer under the program, you can claim the amount of credit available to you. To do so, you have to complete Form RC104 - Federal Youth Hires Program.

Your request must be made to the CCRA later than three years from the end of the year where the premium relief arose. Accordingly, any claims for 1999 must be received before January 1, 2003, while any claims for 2000 must be received before January 1, 2004.