The Government of Canada has approved legislation – the Fairness for the Self-Employed Act – to provide Employment Insurance (EI) maternity, parental/adoption, sickness and compassionate care benefits to self-employed Canadians on a voluntary basis. This legislation will allow the self-employed to opt into the EI program in January 2010, while benefits will start being paid [...]

These days, if you’re like a lot of companies, money is tighter than ever and it’s critical to prioritize expenditures and get the biggest bang for your buck. Sometimes, this means putting things on the back burner that you may otherwise choose to invest in to ensure the growth and advancement of your company.
Employee training [...]

Earlier this month, the Government of Canada released its 2010 Budget. It contained a number of measures and initiatives to create and maintain jobs, to grow the Canadian economy, to strengthen Canadian Innovation and to make Canada a destination of choice for new business investment.
Read the full article on the SOHO web site to learn [...]

Victoria plans to commit every dollar raised through the HST to health services funding once the controversial tax comes into effect July 1, 2010, according to B.C. Finance Minister Colin Hansen.
The provincial government budget tabled Tuesday will increase the Ministry of Health Services’ budget by more than $2 billion between 2009-10 and 2012-13. Health spending [...]

The Government of Canada has introduced some proposed legislation under the Fairness for the Self-Employed Act which could provide the opportunity for self-employed individuals to access many of the same employment insurance benefits as employees.
The legislation, recently announced by the Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development, The Honourable Diane Finley, forms part of the [...]

About 11,300 more British Columbians collected employment insurance in September than August, leading to the first increase in EI rolls since June, according to data released from Statistics Canada Tuesday.
The number of people in B.C. receiving benefits rose 12.8% to 99,360 in September, up from 88,080 in August. StatsCan reported that 15 of B.C.’s 25 [...]