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Clippings
June 1, 2017
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Bill 17 - Alberta Government Announces Major Changes to Employment Standards and Labour Relations Acts
Last week the Alberta Government introduced Bill 17, the Fair and Family-friendly Workplaces Act to update the employment standards and labour relations acts. Highlights include;
- Changes to how banked hours' work. Under the new legislation hours must be banked at 1.5 times hours worked essentially removing the benefit of banking over straight overtime. Increased banked time from 3 months to 6 months.
- Enhanced protected leave status for many categories including maternity, compassionate care, and family leaves. Reduced the eligibility for leave to 90 days of employment. New Personal and Family Responsibility of 5 days per year as unpaid time off, but with protected status. This covers personal sickness, short-term care of family, or school events of a child.
- Compressed work weeks would now be called Averaging Agreements and would allow for 1 to 12 week averages to determine overtime eligibility.
- Rest periods would now be a minimum 30-minute break (paid or un-paid) for every 5 hours of consecutive employment. With employer and employee agreement, these can be split to two-15 minute breaks.
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Canada 150 Garden Needs Volunteers
Landscape Alberta members are building a garden at the Alberta legislature to celebrate Canada's 150th birthday. This one-day build will bring together members from across the province to highlight the amazing work you do and the great value our work provides the lives of Albertans. We could not ask for a better location with more than 100,000 people expected for this years Canada Day celebrations.
Click here to see the concept plan.
Many donations from members have been received to date including generous support from Expocrete an Oldcastle Company, Finning Canada, Burnco Landscape Centres, Park Landscaping and Manderley Turf.
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City of Edmonton Landscape Standards Update
Landscape Alberta was again invited to sit on the Landscape Standards review committee for 2017. Along with members of UDI and City staff from various departments, the group reviews issues and suggests changes to the Landscape Standards. The City in the end has final say on all changes but are open to modification based on our feedback as stakeholders. This year there were very few changes to the landscape standard. There is the release of a new draft Top Soil specification that will come in to effect July 1, 2018. All other changes take effect July 1 of this year. Please note the changes take effect on projects tendered and bid after the effective date. The standards in place at the time of approval and /or work are the standards that apply to that job.
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Ash Borer Moth Detection
The first traps of the year in Edmonton have picked up the first adult Ash Borers emerging. The advice from City of Edmonton, Mike Jenkins for contractors looking to treat planted stock is to apply controls around June 5 when egg hatching is likely to begin (10-14 days from adult emergence). The treatment is then repeated every 10-14 days as long as adults are emerging.
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Join the Celebration and be Part of a National Garden Promotion
Garden Days is a ten-day celebration that takes place June 9 - 18, 2017. The program's objective is to draw attention to our garden culture, history and innovations and to underscore the importance and value of public and private gardens and gardening.
To celebrate Garden Days, we invite you to organize special activities and/or promotions at your garden, garden centre and in your community. The intent is simply to profile your celebration of gardens and gardening and your contribution to Canada's garden experiences.
Whatever you decide to do, we invite you to register your activity or promotion, at no cost, on
www.gardendays.ca.
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Landscape Industry Certified Technician Exam
The next test date in Alberta is August 18-19, 2017 at Olds College campus. A summer test means candidates can use the season's field experience to build skills toward their success on test day. It also means we can offer the Turf Maintenance Technician test without mowing snow! Get the ball rolling - register today by contacting Jason Young, Certification Co-ordinator at CNLA:
jason@cnla-acpp.ca, or call toll-free 1-888-446-3499 ext. 8620.
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Having an Event?
Are you planning an industry event? Let us know and we will add to our
events calendar on the
Landscape Alberta website. If you would you like a representative from Landscape Alberta to attend your event, let us know and we will do our best to make it out. Send your event listings to:
kyla@landscape-alberta.com. Be sure to include date, time, location and a web link (if applicable).
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Benefits for Members across the Country
HortProtect: An insurance program that has been customized to meet the needs of this industry. Offers property and casualty insurance, life and health insurance and an RRSP plan for your company and its employees.
MBNA: A CNLA branded MasterCard® with high credit limits and low introductory rates.
Take advantage of these discounts and save thousands - see all the deals at the CNLA website
https://cnla.ca/become-a-member.
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If you have any questions or concerns, or if you would like more information on upcoming events, please contact us at 1-800-378-3198 or email
admin@landscape-alberta.com
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