It will depend on the province of employment and the specific regulations. In BC we only issue an ROE if the earnings are interrupted so if they continue to get a paycheque twice per month I would not issue an ROE.

ROE forms are controlled by federal jurisdiction and do not vary province to province. An ROE is only issued when the earnings are interrupted or at the request of Service Canada.

It is very seldom that i argue with Clyde. He knows much more than me, and has taught me a thing or two over the years. Hoever, this is from the Service Canada website:

When the pay period type changes: When your business or organization changes its pay period type, you must issue ROEs for all employees, even though the employees are not experiencing an interruption of earnings. For details, see the note under Block 6, Pay period type.

www.canada.ca/.../understand.html

https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/programs/ei/ei-list/reports/roe-guide/understand.html

When the pay period type changes: When your business or organization changes its pay period type, you must issue ROEs for all employees, even though the employees are not experiencing an interruption of earnings. For details, see the note under Block 6, Pay period type.

Yes you would need to make the employees inactive. That is a huge pain, I know. 

Dovid: I might take an exception, but having checked with Service Canada just one month ago they reminded me that the wording in the Block 6 Note: is 'should' not 'must'. I can see advantages to issuing the ROE to make the reporting dollars work out better but it is not mandatory.

Clyde, there seems to be a contradiction in two places on the Service Canada website! Probably not the first time. 

We are moving from a monthly to a semi-monthly payroll frequency on January 1st.  If I do in fact issue ROE's to my employees, do I then need to recreate those employees in Sage 50 in order to begin the new pay period?

Karen, you do not need to recreate them. Just make them inactive, Set the ROE code to other, and the termination date to the day of the change. and export the ROE's. You will have to make a not on each ROE in the comment box- Change in Pay period. Then just re-activate all of the employees, and make the next day their first day worked.