LAWS & ANNOUNCEMENTS

Employment Benefits

Mar 26: Royal Assent for Bill 17 allowing pension administrators to transfer assets from the plan’s defined benefit (DB) portion to insurance companies to purchase a pension annuity for a deferred DB member, surviving partner not currently receiving a pension, active DB member not currently receiving the defined benefit, or person receiving a DB pension under the plan.

Immigration

Apr 1: Responding to Ottawa’s “loss of control over immigration,” Alberta introduced legislation (Bill 26) to strengthen provincial oversight of employers, foreign worker recruiters, and immigration consultants. The Immigration Oversight Act requires employers to register with the province before accessing federal temporary foreign worker programs and establishes a licensing system for immigration consultants and foreign worker recruiters.

Action Point: Find out what companies and their HR directors need to know to navigate the immigration law maze.

New Laws

Apr 14: Third Reading for Bill 21, the Interprovincial Trade Mutual Recognition Act, allowing goods and services from other mutual recognition provinces to be sold in Alberta as long as they meet the regulatory standards of that province. Thus, for example, Albertans could buy equipment manufactured in Ontario that complies with Ontario regulations even though Alberta’s regulations governing that particular types of equipment are different.

Action Point: Find out about the 5 ways the new interprovincial free trade and labour mobility regulations will impact HR operations.

Labour Relations

Mar 31: Alberta passed Bill 15 amending the Police Act to allow the government to issue a Section 33.97 order to transfer a Crown employee or class of employees to a successor employer. Employees transferred by such an order wouldn’t be entitled to severance pay, termination pay, termination notice, pay in lieu of notice, or other compensation, regardless of their rights under common law, the Employment Standards Code, or the terms of their employment contract. But they would have the right to collectively negotiate terms of employment with the successor employer.

New Laws

Apr 14: Newly tabled Bill 30 establishes a 120-day approval time frame and clear criteria for government approval of major project developments of at least $250 million. To qualify for expedited approval, projects must align with provincial economic priorities. Project proponents will have to complete the mandatory environmental impact assessment and Indigenous consultation processes.

New Laws

Mar 26: Bill 16, the Traveler Protection and Destination Development Act, authorizing the government to regulate the destination tourism industry and the imposition of destination marketing fees, passed Third Reading. The Bill doesn’t apply to the Alberta tourism levy, which increased from 4% to 6% on April 1.

New Laws

Mar 31: The federal government announced a combined investment of more than $7 million through the Regional Tariff Response Initiative (RTRI) for five Edmonton-based organizations, including $3.5 million for the Alberta Chambers of Commerce to support more efficient supply chains for tariff-impacted businesses, starting with the manufacturing and value-added agriculture sectors.

Discrimination

Mar 9: In the 2024-25 fiscal year, the Alberta Human Rights Commission opened 1,175 discrimination complaint files, most of which were related to employment. The leading grounds of alleged discrimination were physical disability (27%), mental disability (23%), gender (13%), race/colour (9%), and family status (7%).

Action Point: Beware of certain kinds of seemingly legitimate employment practices that may have the effect of inadvertently perpetuating racial discrimination and increasing your liability risks.

Workplace Violence

Mar 25: Alberta’s Budget 2026 earmarks $4.1 million over three years to expand the bandwidth of its system for electronically monitoring offenders who’ve been released subject to court-ordered conditions. Offenders are required to wear a GPS tracking device monitored 24-7 by Alberta Correctional Services. Participating victims receive immediate alerts if an offender breaches a court-ordered boundary, enters a restricted area, or comes near their location.

Action Point: Are you doing enough to protect your employees against violence at work? Find out about the 10 things you must do to prevent workplace violence.

CASES

Hiring & Recruiting: Lying About Having an MBA Is Just Cause to Terminate Business Executive

A college graduate applying for a VP of Business Development position submitted a resume indicating he was working on his MBA and expected to complete his degree within six months. After an extensive interview process during which his educational credentials were taken on trust and not questioned, he got the job. But it soon became apparent that he didn’t have the skills or education to perform the work. It turned out that the VP wasn’t in an MBA program after all, although he was planning to enroll in a “mini-MBA program” at McGill University. So, the company fired him seven months into his employment, contending that it wouldn’t have bothered to interview him had it known of his actual educational background. The Alberta court ruled that the company had just cause to terminate. “By misrepresenting his academic qualifications, [the VP] breached the level of patent honesty and trust required of him in his position as part of the Executive leadership team,” the court reasoned [Tudor v Accurate Screen Ltd, 2026 ABKB 237 (CanLII), March 26, 2026].

Action Point: Find out when lying on a resume is and is not just cause for termination.

Health & Safety: Casino Fined $70,000 for Not Securing Loose Lockers

A casino worker suffered serious injuries after being struck and pinned by falling lockers. Alberta OHS inspectors determined that the casino operator was aware that the lockers weren’t secured to a wall. As a result, it was fined $70,000 after pleading guilty to failing to eliminate or control a hazard that it identified during a hazard assessment [Cold Lake First Nations Casino Corporation, Govt. Press Release, March 25, 2026].