Archive for category: news

In September 2016, the Workers’ Compensation Board (WCB) issued a working paper and Draft Policy titled “Pre-Existing Conditions – Entitlement” for public consultation. Click HERE to review. The Office of the Employer Advisor (OEA) facilitated a working group to review and consider the WCB’s documents, meeting throughout the fall of 2016. In December, OEA collected comments, feedback and advice on the first draft of the Employer’s Submission to fully represent the employer’s issues on this subject.

Please find attached OEA’s Employer Submission. Please review the submission and consider the impact of the proposed WCB policy regarding the compensability/entitlement of pre-existing conditions.

CANS is in agreement and endorses OEA’s positions and recommendations following their consultations with industry and working group. On behalf of CANS Board of Directors and Members, we have submitted our Letter of Endorsement of OEA’s Employer Submission to WCB.

OEA has asked employers to do one of two things, or do both: return a signed/dated Letter of Endorsement to OEA or, copy the entire submission onto your own letterhead and submit to the WCB as your submission. The final submission of employer comments was originally due on Monday, January 9, but the WCB has notified stakeholders and extended it to Tuesday, January 31, 2017.

Click HERE for the OEA’s Letter of Endorsement template.

Click HERE for OEA’s Employer Submission document.

To submit your Letter of Endorsement to OEA, please contact:

Mary Morris
Executive Director of OEA
Phone: (902) 442-9366
Email: mary.morris@oeans.ca
Fax: (902) 252-3466

To submit your feedback directly to WCB, please forward it to:

Caroline Read
Policy Analyst, WCB of Nova Scotia
PO Box 1150
Halifax NS B3J 2Y2
E-mail: caroline.read@wcb.gov.ns.ca

Canadore College has a new program that is opening doors for aboriginal women in the trades. Read more

The Gold Seal Certification program is expanding for 2017, adding the construction foreman designation amidst an overall modernization of the program. The addition of the foreman designation, effective this spring, will broaden the program’s application, with more job site supervisors at smaller firms and subcontractors becoming eligible, explained Gold Seal committee chair Kees Cusveller. Read more

WorkSafeNB has learned that companies are contacting New Brunswick employers telling them they must retrain all staff on Workplace Hazardous Material Information System (WHMIS). To convince employers to register for their course, the companies suggest the employers are not in compliance with provincial labour laws. Read more.

Nova Scotia’s non-residential building construction investment (seasonally adjusted) was $137.8 million in the fourth quarter of 2016. This was 3.6 per cent lower than the previous quarter owing to declines in all industrial (-9.5 per cent) and commercial (-4.4 per cent) construction, which were partially offset by growth in institutional and governmental building construction (+6.7 per cent). Read more.