Thursday, October 15, 2009

Ontario Suspends Self-Employment Benefits Program

According to this article in the Toronto Star, the government of Ontario is suspending it’s “Self-Employment Benefits" program for workers laid off in the recession. It is to be suspended until at least next April.

This program is designed to help laid off workers who are on Employment Insurance start their own business. The program helps some 3000 people in Ontario annually.

*EDIT: This post has been edited to correctly identify the Self-Employment Benefits program as the program that was suspended, it was not the Second Career Program as previously posted. The Second Career Program is still running. More information can be found at http://bit.ly/3JoRLN

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Changes Proposed to Federal Temporary Foreign Worker Program

This past weekend, the Canadian government proposed regulatory amendments to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program. These changes include:
  • a more rigorous assessment of the genuineness of the job offer;
  • limits to the length of a worker’s stay in Canada before returning home; and
  • a two-year prohibition from hiring a temporary foreign worker for employers found to have provided significantly different wages, working conditions or occupations than promised

Employers who are prohibited from hiring temporary foreign workers will be listed on the Citizenship and Immigration Website http://www.cic.gc.ca. For more information, see the official press release.

Friday, October 2, 2009

WSIB Chair Apparently Overbilled Government

Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) chair Steve Mahoney, a former Liberal cabinet minister, is paid $550 a day for the part-time job, and billed taxpayers $141,000 last year, "more per diems than there are working days in the year," complained the Progressive Conservatives. Check out the full article on the Toronto Star website.