Canadian Payroll Reporter

4 Canadian HR Reporter, a Thomson Reuters business 2016 News in Brief A look at news, facts and figures shaping the world of payroll professionals CPP maximum pensionable earnings increasing for 2017 › OTTAWA — The maximum pensionable earn- ings for the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) will in- crease on Jan. 1 to $55,300 from $54,900, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has announced. The contribution rate will remain 4.95 per cent for both employers and employees in 2017. The basic exemption will remain $3,500. As a result, the maximum employee and employer contributions for 2017 will be $2,564.10, the CRA says. At press time, Revenu Québec had not yet announced the maximum pensionable earnings that will apply under the Quebec Pension Plan (QPP) in 2017. In the past, the maximum has been the same as that for the CPP. The QPP contribution rate is expected to increase from 5.325 per cent to 5.4 per cent in 2017. Quebec eliminating health contribution next year › QUEBEC CITY — The Quebec government will eliminate its mandatory health contribution next year, ahead of schedule, says Finance Min- ister Carlos Leitão. In a provincial economic update in late October, Leitão announced that Quebec's financial situation had improved enough that the government could move up its plan to eliminate the health contribution to Jan. 1, 2017. "This measure, which will benefit 4.5 million taxpayers, represents an annual reduction of the tax burden of almost $760 million," he said in a news release. The provincial government announced in 2015 that it would gradually phase out the contribution by 2019. Earlier this year, it moved up the date to 2018. With Leitão's latest announcement, the government will eliminate the contribution two years earlier than it originally planned. Provincial residents aged 18 and over are required to pay the contribution (unless exempted) if their income exceeds a specified threshold ($18,570.00 in 2016). Employees pay the contribution through income tax source deductions. Manitoba health levy returns possibly sent to wrong businesses › WINNIPEG — The Manitoba government says it may have accidently sent returns for its health and post-secondary education tax levy ac- counts to the wrong businesses. The finance department says approximately six returns may have been included in envelopes for other businesses by mistake. In a news release, the department says it took immediate action to find the cause and correct it once it became aware of the error. It says it has notified all businesses that may be affected. Manitoba Finance advises business owners who have not received a return or received one for another business to immediately contact them at 204-945-5603 or toll-free at 1-800- 782-0318. The provincial government has also advised the Manitoba ombudsman of the situation. "Manitoba Finance takes the confidentiality of tax information very seriously," the provincial government said. "The department apologizes for this error, continues to investigate and will take corrective action as recommended." Feds still working on fixing Phoenix problems › OTTAWA — The federal government says it has mostly cleared up a backlog of pay problems associated with its new Phoenix payroll system, but many cases remain outstanding. During a briefing at the end of October, Deputy Minister of Public Services and Procurement Canada Marie Lemay said there were still approximately 22,000 backlogged cases. In mid-July, the figure was close to 82,000. The government had hoped to clear the backlog by the end of October, but Lemay said some of the cases require more time. "As we open cases, we are seeing that a large number of those left in the backlog are complicated and require time-consuming manual calculations, she said. Lemay noted that the backlog is mostly made up of cases that pre-date Phoenix and some that go back years, involving terminations and changes to pay as a result of acting assignments. Besides working to clear the backlog, Lemay said the government is still receiving new cases. She attributed some of the new cases to a rise in the number of employees going on maternity or parental leave or leaving the public service. She said the department would deal with those cases on a priority basis over six weeks. Lemay also said the department is working to improve processing speed and to make the Phoenix system run better. "The goal is to get to a point where we are consistently meeting established service standards so employees get their correct pay in a reliable and reasonable period of time," she said. She noted that prior to Phoenix being put in place, the department's normal service standard varied between 20 and 45 days, depending on the type of pay. "Right now, we are not meeting many of our service standards," Lemay said. "Our goal is to get to a point where we're meeting our service standards at least 95 per cent of the time." Despite the problems, Lemay said there have been service improvements. "We have dramatically shortened or eliminated processing times with the automation features in Phoenix. For example, transactions such as extra duty pay, once approved, are now rapidly processed and reflected in the next pay," she added. The Phoenix pay system replaced the government's previous payroll system earlier this year. The prior system was more than 40 years old. Quebec coalition calling for $15-an-hour minimum wage › QUEBEC CITY — A coalition in Quebec calling on the provincial government to raise the mini- mum wage rate to $15 an hour recently made its case to Labour Minister Dominique Vien. The group, called 5-10-15, said it discussed with the minister the difficulties many workers have in trying to make a decent living with the general minimum wage rate set at $10.75 an hour. In addition to a minimum wage hike, the coalition said it wants the province to give workers in Quebec the right to obtain their work schedules five days in advance and to have 10 days of paid time off each year for family illnesses or family responsibilities. After the meeting, Vien did not say whether the government would act on the coalition's ideas. The government usually announces minimum wage rate changes in December every year, with the rate adjustments taking effect on May 1 the year following. Average weekly earnings up in August: StatsCan › OTTAWA — Average weekly earnings of non- farm payroll employees were $960 in August, up from $952.85 in July, Statistics Canada reports. Statistics Canada revised the July numbers from the previously reported $955. On a year-over-year basis, weekly earnings increased 1.6 per cent in August. The change in weekly earnings during the 12 months to August reflected a number of factors, including wage growth, changes in the composition of employment by industry, occupation and level of job experience, as well as average hours worked per week. Non-farm payroll employees worked an average of 32.7 hours a week in August, unchanged from the previous month and down from 32.8 hours in August 2015. Year-over-year earnings of non-farm payroll employees increased in August in every province but Alberta, with Prince Edward Island leading in growth, followed by New Brunswick and Quebec.

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