Canadian employers facing marijuana challenges in the workplace
Canadian employers are already coping with approximately 75,000 Canadians authorized to use medical marijuana. Health Canada expects that this number will increase to about 450,000 by 2024.
Employers know that medical marijuana is a psychoactive drug prescribed to deal with medical conditions and accordingly, since many of those medical conditions constitute a disability (which employers are bound to accommodate to the point of undue hardship) medical marijuana typically necessitates an assessment and accommodative approach.
The next challenge facing Canadian employers will come with the federal government’s promise to introduce legislation in the spring of 2017 to legalize marijuana. The Task Force led by former Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan has circulated a discussion paper entitled “Towards the Legalization, Regulation and Restriction of Access to Marijuana”.
In the recent US election, the State of California opted for legalizing marijuana. This puts America on the road to allowing 1 in 5 Americans to legally use marijuana.
Employers will have to be mindful of the consequences of legalization of marijuana. Detecting marijuana usage and impairment is a lot more complicated than detecting alcohol use or drunkenness. Canadian employers will want to learn more about the topic and engage with lawmakers.
Archive
Grant Machum and Richard Jordan Employers carefully safeguard customer or client lists as confidential information. Gone are the days, however, where an employer’s customer list is only found in a Rolodex or in a closed…
Read MoreGrant Machum and Guy-Etienne Richard Maintaining employment files requires physical space and can be costly. Nowadays many employers are moving away from keeping paper files to electronic storage. This brings up two issues: Are employers…
Read MoreLevel Chan and Dante Manna On March 12, 2019, the Nova Scotia legislature introduced long anticipated amendments to the Pension Benefits Act (“PBA”) which, according to a statement by Finance Minister Karen Casey, are aimed…
Read MoreJulia Parent and Graham Haynes In the long-awaited decision in the case of Orphan Well Association v Grant Thornton Ltd, the Supreme Court of Canada held that end-of-life environmental cleanup obligations imposed by Alberta’s provincial…
Read MoreIn preparing for the 2019 proxy season, you should be aware of some regulatory changes and institutional investor guidance that may impact disclosure to, and interactions with, your shareholders. This update highlights what is new…
Read MoreChad Sullivan and Bryan Mills New Brunswick has recently introduced a new regulation under the Occupational Health and Safety Act on the topic of problematic workplace conduct. The change will bring New Brunswick in line…
Read MoreJennifer Taylor In an important decision for the auto insurance industry, the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal has confirmed that future CPP disability benefits are indeed deductible from damages awarded in Nova Scotia cases for…
Read MoreBrian Johnston, QC and Matthew Jacobs Bill C-86, enacted as SC 2018, c. 27, will effect massive changes upon how federal labour and employment relations are regulated. They come into effect in 2019 with staggered…
Read MoreWe can all make 2019 a success by building on the year that was. For employers, 2018 was a year of many notable developments in labour and employment law across the country. We saw Ontario…
Read MoreLevel Chan and Dante Manna As 2018 comes to an end, we countdown some pension and employee benefits developments in the last year that we anticipate may lead to developments in 2019. Discrimination in benefits…
Read More