Stewart McKelvey

wind an offending transaction, but there may be im- plications for doing so. Inshore harvesters in Atlantic Canada who have yet to transfer their licences to wholly owned compa- nies and who have not fully utilized their capital gains exemptions should seek professional advice as to how they might access the exemptions. An additional benefit to holding inshore licences in a company is that it is easier to sell a fishing enterprise if all the enterprise assets (including the licence(s)) are held in a company. Another key benefit relates to tax rates. As a corporation, the fish harvester can access low corporate tax rates on the first $400,000 of busi- ness income. Still, another advantage may be the abil- ity to raise more capital through a corporation, rather than as an individual. This structure may also be more appealing in situations where there is significant debt financing such as financing the acquisition of a licence. A major criticism of the new policy is that it only allows for transfers to the specific corporate structure of a wholly-owned company. As a wholly-owned com- pany, other family members would not be sharehold- ers, and this could have a negative impact on estate planning and income splitting. The new policy also raises questions relating to the validity of existing trust arrangements where the cor- poration is not wholly-owned by the independent core licence holder. Further, any change in the ownership structure of the company could impact upon eligibility to hold a licence. Since all the voting and non-voting shares are issued to one individual, if he or she plans to transfer the business or alter the corporate structure, it is important that the harvester obtain professional advice to ensure that the company will remain eligible to hold licences after the transfer or restructuring. We encourage you to contact any member of our Marine Practice group if you have questions about any of the matters discussed in this article. Kim Walsh St. John's, NL 709.570.8834 kwalsh@stewartmckelvey.com SOCIAL NETWORKING AND THE WORKPLACE S By Lisa Gallivan, Sacha Morisset, Clarence Bennett and Alison Strachan ocial networking sites are everywhere. No- where do they present more of a challenge than in the workplace. The challenge of mon- itoring social networking in the workplace isAmerican not likely to disappear. Concerns around social networking in the workplace are simi- lar to those of the early 90s when the internet and email were the newest and latest workplace technol- ogy issues. Internet policies provide a good framework from which to develop social networking policies. Some of the most recent and most publicized social media "incidents" in the workplace include: • Greg Smith's public resignation from Goldman Sachs in March where he accused his former em- ployer of bad business practices, generated a Twit- ter frenzy within minutes of being published in the New York Times opinion section. • A part-time employee assigned to assist at the scene of a suicide in Ontario used his phone to post photos of the deceased to his personal Facebook page with a caption identifying the workplace. • A New Brunswick teacher suffered post-traumatic stress disorder syndrome after several former stu- dents posted false and defamatory content on Fa- cebook. • An American IT staffing firm has sued one of its for- mer employees alleging that she violated the terms of a non-compete agreement through her conduct on LinkedIn by soliciting her former employer's employees and clients and by communicating and connecting with them through the LinkedIn profes- sional network. In short, these are new variations of old workplace issues with a global twist (eg., defamation, violation of confidentiality, workplace bullying, harassment, non-competition and non-solicitation). This conduct may also cause lost productivity and brand damage. Employees often spend an excessive amount of time at work on social networking sites and may also make derogatory comments about an employer, client or cus- tomer that can negatively impact business. Employers who have not done so already should revisit existing DOING BUSINESS IN ATLANTIC CANADA SUMMER 2012 3

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