On February 10, 2021, the Ontario government updated its “COVID-19 Screening Tool for Businesses and Organizations (Screening Workers)” (Tool). The update clarifies that the Tool applies to all regions in Ontario (Rules for Areas in Stages 1, 2 and 3) and that employers must ensure that workers are screened before they go to work or…
Insights
Hicks Morley publishes a number of materials, both electronic and print, on issue-specific and sector-specific topics of interest to our clients. Our insights section has links to all of our various publications, updates and blogs, both current and historical, to keep you informed of developments in the law that impact human resources.
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Human Resources Legislative Update
On January 18, 2021, the Ontario government amended Ontario Regulation 74/20, Work Redeployment For Certain Health Service Providers (Regulation), made under the Reopening Ontario (A Flexible Response to COVID-19) Act, 2020. The amendments – which came into effect January 18, 2021 – are intended to help alleviate the increasing staffing and capacity issues faced by…
Human Resources Legislative Update
On January 7, 2021, the Ontario government announced that it is extending the current provincial lockdown an additional 14 days for the 7 public health unit regions in Northern Ontario. This will align the length of their lockdown with the length of the lockdown for the regions in Southern Ontario. The government also announced that…
FTR Now
On November 20, 2020, the Ontario government filed two regulations that allow point-of-care testing for COVID-19 to take place outside of laboratories and permit an expanded list of healthcare professionals to perform COVID-19 testing. The regulations came into effect on November 20.
Human Resources Legislative Update
On November 19, 2020, the Ontario government announced that it is launching a series of education and enforcement campaigns (“inspection blitzes”) to ensure Ontario businesses are taking the necessary steps for the safety of employees, consumers and the public in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The campaigns have been developed in consultation with local health…
FTR Now
On October 20, 2020, Ontario introduced Bill 218, Supporting Ontario’s Recovery and Municipal Elections Act, 2020. If passed, it would enact The Supporting Ontario’s Recovery Act, 2020 (Act) which provides protection for persons from liability for actions related to COVID-19. It would also remove the framework in the Municipal Elections Act, 1996 providing for ranked ballot elections for municipal council officers. As of today’s date, the Bill is at Second Reading in the Ontario legislature.
FTR Now
The federal government has implemented a suite of new income support benefits, including adjustments to the Employment Insurance (EI) system, to address the ongoing economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the end of the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB).
FTR Now
On October 14, 2020, the Department of Finance Canada released its latest backgrounder regarding the CEWS. The Extending the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy backgrounder (Backgrounder) summarizes a number of new and recently announced changes to the CEWS, including the extension of the CEWS to June 2021.
FTR Now
Effective October 10, 2020, Ottawa, Toronto and Peel Region are subject to the Rules for Areas in Stage 2 as modified by O. Reg. 572/20 (Modified Rules) as a result of the increase in COVID-19 cases in these areas. The Office of the Premier has advised that the Modified Rules will be in place for a minimum of 28 days and will be reviewed on an ongoing basis.
HR HealthCheck
CMOH Issues New Directive #5 on PPE, And More
· 6 min readIn this edition of the HR Healthcheck, we discuss the newly revised Directive #5 issued by Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health (CMOH) with respect to personal protective equipment use in public hospitals and long-term care homes. We also discuss a new regulation filed under the Personal Health Information Protection Act which expands administrative responsibilities under that statute. Finally, we mention Ontario’s recent announcement limiting visitors to long-term care homes in Toronto, Ottawa and Peel Region.