HR Record Retention Requirements | Canada

Canada - Summary Chart

CANADA
DOCUMENTS	RETENTION PERIOD	START OF THE RETENTION PERIOD	RELEVANT LAW REFERENCE
EMPLOYMENT/PENSION RECORDS
Employee Records (including leaves and vacations) and Books of Account	6 years		Unemployment Insurance Act (Canada) – must keep documents, including each employee’s Social Insurance Number
Pension Records	6 years		Federal and Provincial pension legislation
Employment Equity Plans	3 years	After the plan expires	Federal or Provincial employment equity acts
Employee Share Ownership Plan Documents	Permanent		Employee share ownership acts
Commission Reports	6 years		Income tax considerations
T4 and T5 slips	6 years		Income tax considerations
TD1’s - Personal Tax Credit Return, Beneficiary Appointment Forms	6 years		Income tax considerations
Records of the employee’s name and address and date employment	3 years	After employment terminates.
PAYROLL AND SALARY RECORDS
Earnings Cards	6 years		Income tax considerations
Payroll Journals	6 years		Income tax considerations
MEDICAL/HEALTH RECORDS
Health and Safety Records	10 years		Federal and Provincial labour codes and workers’ compensation acts

Led by PeopleDoc’s Chief Legal & Compliance Officer, the HR Compliance Assist team relies on a network of internal and external compliance experts and lawyers, including the global law firm Morgan Lewis, to provide clients with best practices and recommendations on topics such as HR document retention, employee data privacy, and HR electronic records. HR Compliance Assist also provides local compliance monitoring and alert services in select countries where PeopleDoc’s customers have employees. HR Compliance Assist is a service exclusively available to PeopleDoc customers.

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