
Publication
Government of Alberta launches nuclear energy engagement
On August 25, 2025, the Government of Alberta publicly re-affirmed its interest in nuclear energy with the launch of its Nuclear Energy Engagement (the Engagement).
Canada | Publication | August 4, 2021
Since the Pay Equity Act (the Act) received royal assent in December 2018, its coming into force has been highly anticipated. On June 24, 2021, by Order-in-Council, the federal government announced that the Act will come into force on August 31, 2021.
As discussed in our previous publication, the Act imposes new proactive pay equity obligations on federally regulated employers with 10 or more employees in both the public and private sectors. Specifically, each employer must develop a pay equity plan for its employees within three years of becoming subject to the Act.
Notably, if the employer employs 100 or more employees or is unionized, it will need to establish a pay equity committee to develop the pay equity plan. The Act prescribes composition requirements for such a committee, including that 50% of committee members be women and at least two-thirds of the members represent employees under the plan. In unionized workplaces, each bargaining agent must select at least one representative for the employees of its bargaining unit.
Importantly, by November 1, 2021, employers must post a notice informing their employees of their obligations under the Act. This notice must remain posted until the plan is completed or employer obligations change. The government has published template notices here.
Preparing a pay equity plan is not an insignificant task. It involves:
A draft of the pay equity plan, along with a notice to employees of their right to provide comments, must be posted before the pay equity plan can be finalized. This final version must be posted by September 3, 2024, for employers who became subject to the Act on August 31, 2021.
The Act also prescribes annual reporting requirements and a five-year maintenance cycle intended to ensure employers review their plans in order to identify and close any pay gaps that may have emerged.
To accompany the Act, final pay equity regulations have been published in the Canada Gazette Part II and will also come into force on August 31, 2021. The draft regulations were pre-published in late 2020 and are open for public consultation until mid-January 2021. The final version reflects certain changes, including:
As the Act will soon be in force, many federally regulated employers will soon be facing a new and robust set of obligations. These employers are encouraged to begin reviewing the legislation and its accompanying regulation to fully understand their obligations under this regime, and should prepare to comply within the legislated timeframes.
Employers subject to the Act may also want to start considering the composition of a pay equity committee, if required, collect and update existing compensation and job data that may be relevant to the pay equity process, and determine whether to seek authorization from the Pay Equity Commissioner to create multiple pay equity plans (as the presumption under the Act is that there is one plan for an entire organization, even in unionized workplaces with multiple bargaining units).
Publication
On August 25, 2025, the Government of Alberta publicly re-affirmed its interest in nuclear energy with the launch of its Nuclear Energy Engagement (the Engagement).
Publication
Shifting geopolitical dynamics have seen a wave of changes across the international investigations and enforcement landscape. In this edition, we focus on some of the most significant of these changes – from the issue of new cooperation guidelines by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) to the abandonment by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) of its proposal to “name and shame” those it is investigating.
Publication
Health Canada has proposed a major change to the regulation of biosimilar drugs that may accelerate biologic patent litigation in Canada. Following the lead of other jurisdictions, Health Canada has proposed that biosimilar manufacturers no longer be required to conduct phase 3 clinical trials to enter the Canadian market.
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