Payroll and Benefits Specialist

Payroll & Benefits Specialist – Queen West Site

Full‑time, Permanent position. 1.0 FTE (35 hours/week).

Parkdale Queen West Community Health Centre (Parkdale Queen West CHC) is a dynamic, community‑based health care organization serving mid‑west downtown Toronto. Offering a broad range of services, including primary health care, dental care, harm reduction, health promotion, counselling, and community development programming, we are committed to serving people who face barriers to health care and reducing these barriers.

We are seeking an experienced Payroll & Benefits Specialist who shares our passion for making a difference and contributes to a vision of inclusive communities.

The Payroll & Benefits Specialist is responsible for ensuring the accurate, timely, and compliant administration of payroll and benefits programs across the organization. The role also supports planning, analysis, and reporting functions related to payroll to strengthen compliance, budgeting accuracy, and operational efficiency.

• Assesses, establishes and distributes yearly payroll deadlines to Program Managers and ensures compliance
• Provides payroll‑related proposals and ad‑hoc reports as requested by the Manager of Finance and the Director of Finance
• Remains current with all relevant organization’s policies, collective agreements, funders and appropriate government legislation and ensures changes are implemented
• Establishes benefit cost formulas for each budget year
• Works with the Manager of Finance to recommend, update and maintain payroll guidelines and policies and related documents and forms for the organization

• Ensures accurate and timely processing of hourly, salaried, union and non‑union payroll in accordance with applicable legislation and collective agreements for a multi‑site community health centre
• Administers, analyzes and reconciles payroll, benefits administration and employee records for all stages in the employee life cycle including new hires, transfers, employee status changes, etc. while ensuring proper authorization and adherence to standards and policy
• Creates and processes bi‑weekly journal entries, year‑end reports, T4 reconciliation and other analytics as needed
• Leads payroll and benefits reconciliation for year‑end audit
• Liaises with employees, management, benefits providers, WSIB and Human Resources on payroll and benefits inquiries

• Prepares accounts payable requisitions and completes required documentation for remittances to all agencies to avoid payment penalties
• Maintains ongoing contact with staff, banks, government agencies, courts, law firms and other external agencies for payroll inquiries and administration
• Responds to requests for payroll information from regulatory agencies such as the CRA, Ministry of Finance, WSIB and Service Canada
• Calculates and reconciles claims for subsidized employment and training programs and prepares submissions within required time frames
• Calculates amounts and prepares billing requests to unions for employees’ non‑work time on union business
• Administers the organization’s multiple WSIB and EHT classifications and accounts, processes monthly submissions and allocates expenses to program budgets
• Processes statutory remittances, benefit premium calculations, pension remittances and year‑end reporting while establishing priorities within strict timelines

Other duties as assigned that support payroll integrity, financial reporting, and operational compliance.

• Applicable post‑secondary degree/diploma with strong preference for certification in Payroll Administration (CPA/PCP) or recognized equivalent work experience
• Minimum of three years experience in a Payroll and Benefits capacity either in finance or Human Resources
• Fully competent with an in‑house customized Payroll/HRIS system (Ceridian or Dayforce strongly preferred)
• Ability to work independently often under tight time constraints with high regard for meeting deadlines
• Above‑average communication and problem‑solving skills
• Solid understanding and experience applying…