by SHCA SHCA

WCB’s 2020–22 COVID-19 Cost Relief to Conclude This Month

For more than two years in 2020, through 2021 and through the first six months of 2022, the Saskatchewan Workers’ Compensation Board (WCB) provided cost relief for employers with accepted COVID-19 claims. The WCB will conclude providing COVID-19 cost relief for employers with accepted COVID-19 workplace injuries that occur on or after July 1, 2022. Accepted COVID-19 workplace injuries that occur prior to July 1 are still eligible for cost relief.

“The WCB has worked to support employers and workers over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. This included covering all claim costs for accepted COVID-19 workplace injury claims in 2020, 2021 and the first six months of 2022,” said the WCB’s chair Gord Dobrowolsky. “As the pandemic has evolved, claims related to COVID-19 exposures in the workplace have started to taper off. At the same time, high vaccination rates and effective risk management by employers have helped to limit the time lost to COVID-19 and the resulting costs.”

The number of COVID-19 claims requiring workers to be away from work for more than 10 days has dropped significantly, from 41.9 per cent of claims in 2021 to 24.5 per cent of claims in the first part of 2022.

The WCB has implemented relief measures for employers and workers since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, including providing cost relief for employers. For claims that occurred from 2020 to May 10, 2022, the WCB has provided more than $7.5 million in cost relief for COVID-19 injury claims. The cost relief is funded through the WCB’s occupational disease reserve as a temporary measure to aid Saskatchewan employers.

“While we will conclude the temporary cost relief measures for COVID-19 claims after two and a half years, employers and workers can still submit eligible COVID-19 workplace injury claims to the WCB,” says the WCB’s CEO Phillip Germain.

A worker may be entitled to WCB benefits if they contract COVID-19 and there is a confirmed link between the worker’s exposure and their employment. Based on WCB policy Injuries – Communicable Disease (POL 02/2010), the following conditions must be met:

  • There is confirmed exposure to the disease in the workplace
  • The time period that the illness is contracted is in close proximity to the confirmed workplace exposure
  • The nature of employment creates a greater risk of exposure for the worker than to the general population

“COVID-19 presented each one of us with challenges unique to our lifetimes over the past two years, affecting the way we conduct business in Saskatchewan,” said Germain. “Thank you to the workers, employers, employer associations and unions for your health and safety efforts. Together we can all help keep each workplace safe.”

Frequently asked questions for employers on COVID-19 workplace injury claims are available at wcbsask.com.

by SHCA SHCA

The Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce Welcomes New CEO

The Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce is pleased to welcome Prabha Ramaswamy as its new CEO. Ramaswamy is a champion of Saskatchewan business, a passionate community leader and organizational visionary.

Prabha Ramaswamy

“I look forward to collaborating with all our stakeholders to build the strongest business eco-system in Canada,” said Ramaswamy. “Saskatchewan has what the world needs and is well-positioned to be a leader – particularly at this juncture. Our continued growth will transform the business landscape and create opportunities to enhance competitiveness, and boost investments and trade. I have been a staunch champion of women-owned businesses and now I look ahead to advocating for all businesses in our province.”

The CEO of non-profit, membership-based organization Women Entrepreneurs of Saskatchewan (WESK) since 2014, Ramaswamy has demonstrated a strong commitment to helping Saskatchewan realize its economic potential by driving change to close the gender entrepreneurship gap and the resulting gender economic gap in the province.

During her eight-year tenure at WESK, Ramaswamy launched several breakthrough programs to support the business community, including Matchstick, the first program in Western Canada to support Indigenous women entrepreneurs, and Charter Champions, the first charter designed to enhance the support of Saskatchewan’s women-owned businesses.

“Prabha brings to this role extensive experience in transforming organizations, advocating on behalf of the business community and leading with a strategic vision,” said Thomas Benjoe, chair of the Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce. “We are confident that she will shape the future of the Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce as an organization and strengthen our network, voice, and province as a whole.”

Ramaswamy will assume her role on June 20, 2022.

by SHCA SHCA

SRC Celebrates 75 Years of Technology and Innovation

This year, the Saskatchewan Research Council (SRC) is reaching a major milestone – 75 years of providing valuable research, development and demonstration to Saskatchewan industry and beyond. SRC is focused on providing services that support the province’s key economic sectors, such as mining, minerals, energy, oil and gas, agriculture and biotechnology, as well as meeting the environmental needs of industry.

Saskatchewan Research Council

Throughout its history, SRC has been a part of many important firsts for the province. In the 1970s, SRC was a leader in energy efficient housing research and its work formed the basis for the development of the R-2000 standard for energy efficient homes. In the 1980s, SRC played a large role assisting the Saskatchewan energy industry by enabling the implementation of horizontal wells in and the use of carbon dioxide (CO2) for enhanced oil recovery.

SRC Geoanalytical Laboratories’ ISO/IEC 17025:2017 accredited secure diamond laboratory was established in the early 2000s and is now the largest such facility in the world. SRC’s Rare Earth Processing Facility, supported with $31 million in funding from the Government of Saskatchewan, will be the first-of-its-kind in North America as it comes online early in 2023.

Today, SRC’s environmental remediation work in northern Saskatchewan also leads industry with its community engagement, project management and environmental practices, some of which have translated to other government programs like the Ministry of Energy and Resources’ Accelerated Site Closure Program (ASCP).

These are just a few examples of how SRC has pioneered initiatives that benefit Saskatchewan over the past 75 years. Going forward, SRC is strongly committed to continuing to create positive impacts for the province while it supports government and industry in new and emerging strategic areas including the energy transition and critical minerals.

SRC is Canada’s second largest research and technology organization. With nearly 300 employees, $137 million in annual revenue and 75 years of experience, SRC provides services and products to its 1,500 clients in 27 countries around the world.

For more information on SRC’s history, view our blog at https://src.nu/75atsrc.

by SHCA SHCA

Stronger Together Conference: See you in Waikiki!

The Western Canadian Roadbuilders & Heavy Construction Association (WCR&HCA) are heading to Waikiki, Feb. 5–9, 2023 for the Stronger Together Conference. Joined by hundreds of delegates from across Western Canada, the conference offers industry speakers, education and an array of networking events. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to connect!

Click here for more information about the conference; we hope to see SHCA members there! Interested in becoming a sponsor? Find out more.

WCRHCA Stonger Together Conference poster
by Shantel Lipp Shantel Lipp

Champions of Infrastructure

Shantel Lipp

Infrastructure needs its champions, and the Saskatchewan Heavy Construction Association is proud to be one of them. Recently, our chair and some of our board members had the opportunity to attend a dinner meeting in Saskatoon sponsored, in part, by the SHCA.

The Canada West Foundation, which released the Shovel Ready to Shovel Worthy report last month, was in Saskatchewan for its board meeting, bringing together those who understand what Western Canada offers the world. Trade infrastructure is how we make sure that what provinces like Saskatchewan produce can be transported from here to everywhere that buys what we sell. The SHCA champions for long-term investment into trade infrastructure through its relationships with the Western Canadian Roadbuilders as well as the Civil Infrastructure Council among others, such as the Canada West Foundation.

These relationships are how reports such as the Shovel Ready to Shovel Worthy report are produced and promoted. A report like that creates the narrative for industries like ours to have the conversation with elected officials, and industry leaders at all levels about working together to capitalize investment into trade corridors.

A report like Shovel Ready to Shovel Worthy is where compelling data is pulled together and presented to prove our case. A report with such data is at the core of our collaboration on coordinated campaigns that target the federal government to carve out explicit funds for trade-related infrastructure. The contents of the report will be discussed at meetings with Saskatchewan’s new Minister of Highways, Jeremy Cockrill, as well as the new chief of staff, Brayden Fox, who I am excited to work with going forward.

It is the focus of messages our industry and association send out to the public through radio, social media and publications to get people thinking about the value Saskatchewan’s trade infrastructure brings to our economy and the people of this province.

It is what we bring forward to conversations with groups such as the City of Regina, the City of Saskatoon, SUMA, SARM, the Saskatchewan Trucking Association and chambers of commerce. We encourage municipally elected officials, business owners and administration to recognize how trade benefits from this infrastructure and to echo our message about investment in it.

If you can’t move it, you can’t sell it. That’s a message that resonates with everyone. Between opportunity and crisis, Saskatchewan and Canada face a choice. We have opportunity but we need a plan to capitalize on it over the long term to rebuild this country’s trading reputation. Helping those who make decisions about funding trade infrastructure to recognize that opportunity and choose to support strategic investment that betters this country is why SHCA works with other champions.

Shantel Lipp - SHCA President
by Shantel Lipp Shantel Lipp

Shovel Ready to Shovel Worthy

Canada can continue to spend on infrastructure that members like you build and maintain. 

But investing in infrastructure that supports trade would be a better use of that money and a new report by the Canada West Foundation explains why. The report is titled From Shovel Ready to Shovel Worthy.

Several industry and trade groups across the country and here in Saskatchewan are sharing why this report matters to Canada’s future, including the Western Canada Roadbuilders & Heavy Construction Association (WCR&HCA), Saskatchewan Trade and Export Partnership, Business Council of Canada, Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Canadian Construction Association and Export Development Canada. The Saskatchewan Heavy Construction Association is also on that list. 

The world needs what Canada produces and Saskatchewan, in particular, has a lot to offer the world – but producing it is not enough. We must move it through our country and beyond its borders. 

We need the rest of the world to have confidence that what Canada produces for export will be moved through the country efficiently and reliably so we, as a trading partner, are competitive in the world. 

For more than a decade, those in the know have watched Canada spend on projects that are ready for construction. Instead, a better use of that money would be to invest in projects that will provide a return on that spending by improving Canada’s supply-chain competitiveness. 

For every $1 invested in trade transportation infrastructure, the GDP boost is $1.30, often in the same year. This is one of the messages being shared by Chris Lorenc, the president of the Manitoba Heavy Construction Association, who also serves as president of the WCR&HCA, as he promotes this report’s importance.

Canada doesn’t need to start from scratch when developing a plan for investing in shovel-worthy projects. The shortcut is to take the best parts of already established national plans developed by Canada’s competitors. 

We need to look at their success and build upon them by combining those with Canada’s own successes, such as the Asia-Pacific Gateway and Corridor Initiative and Transport Canada’s current Regional Transportation Assessments.

There are seven points the report makes about how to build Canada’s first national plan for trade corridor infrastructure. They are:

  1. Define Canada’s national trade corridor network to put all levels of government and industry on the same page.
  2. Bring the private sector to the table as an ongoing contributor of sophisticated supply chain expertise and front-line operational experience to complement the best features of public-sector policy.
  3. Apply criteria of national significance to guide the planning process and decision-making. 
  4. Develop an “evergreen,” decades-long pipeline of national infrastructure projects.
  5. Undertake regular assessments of infrastructure projects in relation to established criteria.
  6. Begin a new forward-looking approach to the collection of data and use of forecasting and modelling tools.
  7. Coordinate the communications of domestic infrastructure working groups and aggressively share progress on the above recommendations with industry and foreign customers.

In the next issue of Think Big, which comes out this summer, there will be a deeper dive into this report. 

Here in Saskatchewan, we have seen major investments being made by the private sector that will further develop this province’s trade potential by putting money towards producing commodities the world requires and adding value to those commodities. Saskatchewan is on the world map because of announcements such as BHP approving $7.5 billion for the Jansen potash project to the numerous canola crush plants that were announced to the resources in high demand being developed in this province, including lithium and helium. 

That is all good news, but we must also pay attention to how we are going to move those commodities from this province through Canada and beyond our borders. This report and our conversation as an industry about it will bring attention to the need for Canada to develop a national plan for developing and maintaining our trade infrastructure. I appreciate your interest in moving that conversation forward for the benefit of our industry, province and country. 

by SHCA SHCA

Canada’s Workers’ Compensation Boards should return over $5 billion in excess funds

The Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) is calling on workers’ compensation boards (WCBs) across Canada to rebate surplus funds back to small business owners.

According to CFIB’s latest research snapshot, Workers’ Compensation and Surplus Distributions: A Small Business Perspective, seven provincial and territorial boards are in an over-funded position, meaning boards have exceeded their desired funding target.

“Obviously, workers compensation systems need to be adequately resourced to continue the important work of supporting workers and making workplaces safer. But when you have funds reaching levels that are millions – in some cases billions – of dollars above even their upper targets, it’s time to return that money to hard-working small business owners,” said Ryan Mallough, CFIB senior director of provincial affairs.

Some provinces have recently provided surplus distributions. This year, Ontario rebated $1.5 billion, while Manitoba rebated $95 million. In 2021, Prince Edward Island provided a $25 million rebate. CFIB is urging other provinces to follow suit and deliver meaningful financial relief to small business owners.

“The last two years have been devastating for small businesses across the country. Only 40 per cent are back to normal revenues, and two in three are still carrying COVID-related debt,” said Marvin Cruz, CFIB director, research. “Getting excess WCB money back to small business owners will not only provide some much-needed support, but also add some fairness back into the workers compensation system.”

While seven boards across Canada have rebate policies, last year Ontario became the first province to legislate mandatory rebates when overfunding reaches a certain level. CFIB is also calling on all provinces to follow Ontario’s example to ensure certainty and consistency for small business owners.  

CFIB is calling on all governments to:  

  • Lower employer premiums or rebate surplus funds to employers, if funding ratio exceeds its target funding, with a stronger preference to rebate eligible employers 
  • Implement mandatory distribution policies where there are none 
  • Legislate surplus distribution policies, as in Ontario